Beating the Challenges - Tutorial
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Beating the Challenges - Tutorial
by aww1979 » 01 Jan 2011, 06:51
So, lately I've noticed several threads talking about the challenges and wondering how to beat them. I'm going to start uploading some videos again of me playing the challenges with the quickest, dirtiest decks I can think of for each challenge to help people unlock the cards. (I won't be doing this for Magic: The Puzzling, though, because we were asked not to provide the answers for that one) I will also assume that you have not unlocked any challenges, so that I will not use any locked cards for my runs. I will also re-lock my pit fighting and enchanted evening challenges, as I will also assume you don't have those unlocked, either. (they provide a Pit Scorpion and make your enchantments indestructible in challenge mode, respectively)
For playing back the videos, I recommend VLC media player.
So, without further ado... the challenges.
http://www.slightlymagic.net/wiki/Challenge_Mode (cards unlocked by challenges listed, as well as basics about what cards are legal)
>>edit by Salbei
Hope you don´t mind if i add this index (+eye candy).
Challenge set #1
Challenge set #2
Challenge set #3
For playing back the videos, I recommend VLC media player.
So, without further ado... the challenges.
http://www.slightlymagic.net/wiki/Challenge_Mode (cards unlocked by challenges listed, as well as basics about what cards are legal)
>>edit by Salbei
Hope you don´t mind if i add this index (+eye candy).
Challenge set #1
- Set 1 Difficult Ratings
Challenge #1: Tribal Trials
Challenge #2: Vanguard Vengeance
Challenge #3: Chipping Away
Challenge #4: Onslaught
Challenge #5: Shandalar 2.0
Challenge #6: BANNED
Challenge #7: 5:1 (got replaced!)
Challenge #7: Planeswalker Decimation
Challenge #8: Magic: The Puzzling
Challenge #9: That's Not My Deck!
Challenge set #2
- Set 2 Difficult Ratings
Challenge #1: Super Mulligan
Challenge #2: What Hand?
Challenge #3: That's Big!
Challenge #4: Epic
Challenge #5: There Can Only Be One!
Challenge #6: March of the Machines
Challenge #7: Land Ho!
Challenge #8: Dude!
Challenge set #3
Last edited by aww1979 on 17 Sep 2011, 09:04, edited 8 times in total.
Re: Beating the Challenges - Tutorial
by aww1979 » 01 Jan 2011, 06:58
Set #1
Challenge #1: Tribal Trials
There are several decks that would work well here. There are no deck construction rules, other than that your deck must be type 1/vintage legal, which is the case in every challenge. All enemy decks are heavily creature-oriented, so cards that hose creatures like Moat are incredible here. The AI gets a free creature on each round, so beware of that. Because of that, and because we have the Eldrazi coded now, which we did not when this challenge was first created, I am going to build an Oath of Druids deck with eldrazi.
Tutors, card draw, cheap removal, and a few board hosers, plus the oath/emrakul combo. I expect to win this one on the first attempt. The idea is to get an Oath of Druids out by turn 2 or 3 at the latest, by tutoring for it on turn 1 or 2 if you didn't get one in the opening hand, and then wtfpwning with Emrakul.
Run #1 (win) http://uploading.com/files/25772a62/tribaltrials.avi/
Challenge #1: Tribal Trials
There are several decks that would work well here. There are no deck construction rules, other than that your deck must be type 1/vintage legal, which is the case in every challenge. All enemy decks are heavily creature-oriented, so cards that hose creatures like Moat are incredible here. The AI gets a free creature on each round, so beware of that. Because of that, and because we have the Eldrazi coded now, which we did not when this challenge was first created, I am going to build an Oath of Druids deck with eldrazi.
- Oath/Emrakul Deck List: | Open
Tutors, card draw, cheap removal, and a few board hosers, plus the oath/emrakul combo. I expect to win this one on the first attempt. The idea is to get an Oath of Druids out by turn 2 or 3 at the latest, by tutoring for it on turn 1 or 2 if you didn't get one in the opening hand, and then wtfpwning with Emrakul.
- The enemy decks you will face are: | Open
Run #1 (win) http://uploading.com/files/25772a62/tribaltrials.avi/
Last edited by aww1979 on 25 Jan 2011, 22:07, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Beating the Challenges - Tutorial
by aww1979 » 01 Jan 2011, 08:45
Set #1
Challenge #2: Vanguard Vengeance
In my opinion, this is probably one of the easiest challenges. Only the final round (Reaper King) is really difficult, though the Momir vanguard round can be problematic as well if you get bad luck. Again, almost any decent deck will probably do well here. I will use the exact same deck list as I did for Tribal Trials. Again, you can build any deck you want, as long as it is Type 1 legal, and you should have an easier time here than you did with Tribal Trials.
I am not certain whether the AI decks are always seen in this order, but this is the order I saw them on my run. The avatars ARE always in the same order, though.
Run #1 (win) The games were straightforward until round #10. I got a great opening hand (with a random green deck) but for some reason my draw phases kept getting skipped, and one turn I had to discard down to about 5 cards for no reason. (I can't remember if this is a normal feature of the challenge or if it was a bug, so be aware of it just in case) Still, since I had 4 Forest and Phyrexian Processor in my opening hand, I played that on turn 4 for 33 life. (Chaos orb avatar gave me 50) Then the AI played Qasali Pridemage, but fortunately was too stupid to destroy my processor with it, so I made 33/33 tokens and quickly overwhelmed the AI. I fetched a Berserk with the avatar just to add insult to injury on the final turn. Unfortunately, my recording screwed up, so I'll try it again :p
Run #2: I got to round 7 and then the game locked up after one of my attacks, so I had to abandon it. I got incredibly lucky on the momir challenge, getting baneslayer turn 5 and sun titan turn 6. I won with those, two Inkwell Leviathan, and an Ulamog in play :p Round 5 I came close to losing because the AI used Naturalize on Oath of Druids; even though I replaced it next turn, that stalled long enough that I won with only 5 life. http://uploading.com/files/fd74f3b3/van ... ance2.avi/
Run #3: I got to round 6 and lost to the rat deck, as I had to mulligan to 5. I got emrakul out but it was too late; there were too many rats out already and I was overrun. Camstudio crashed so I have no video.
Run #4: Lost on round 1
AI dropped Sol Ring / Thorn of Amethyst and then Trinisphere, and I was screwed.
Run #5: I got to round 10, and then some weirdass bug occurred such that whenever I tried to play a land, it would ask 'pick a target creature' and of course I couldn't, and then the land bounced back into my hand. I then used my chaos orb to get a black lotus, but the same thing happened when I tried to play that. Hopefully you won't have that shit happen to you... anyway, I'm not going to play this one again, since I think you've seen enough, and I'm tired of it, especially since I beat it in run #1 but the stupid recording program only captured a tiny square in the middle of my screen, so you couldn't see any of the action. http://uploading.com/files/fd74f3b3/van ... ance2.avi/
Challenge #2: Vanguard Vengeance
In my opinion, this is probably one of the easiest challenges. Only the final round (Reaper King) is really difficult, though the Momir vanguard round can be problematic as well if you get bad luck. Again, almost any decent deck will probably do well here. I will use the exact same deck list as I did for Tribal Trials. Again, you can build any deck you want, as long as it is Type 1 legal, and you should have an easier time here than you did with Tribal Trials.
- The enemy decks you will face are: | Open
I am not certain whether the AI decks are always seen in this order, but this is the order I saw them on my run. The avatars ARE always in the same order, though.
Run #1 (win) The games were straightforward until round #10. I got a great opening hand (with a random green deck) but for some reason my draw phases kept getting skipped, and one turn I had to discard down to about 5 cards for no reason. (I can't remember if this is a normal feature of the challenge or if it was a bug, so be aware of it just in case) Still, since I had 4 Forest and Phyrexian Processor in my opening hand, I played that on turn 4 for 33 life. (Chaos orb avatar gave me 50) Then the AI played Qasali Pridemage, but fortunately was too stupid to destroy my processor with it, so I made 33/33 tokens and quickly overwhelmed the AI. I fetched a Berserk with the avatar just to add insult to injury on the final turn. Unfortunately, my recording screwed up, so I'll try it again :p
Run #2: I got to round 7 and then the game locked up after one of my attacks, so I had to abandon it. I got incredibly lucky on the momir challenge, getting baneslayer turn 5 and sun titan turn 6. I won with those, two Inkwell Leviathan, and an Ulamog in play :p Round 5 I came close to losing because the AI used Naturalize on Oath of Druids; even though I replaced it next turn, that stalled long enough that I won with only 5 life. http://uploading.com/files/fd74f3b3/van ... ance2.avi/
Run #3: I got to round 6 and lost to the rat deck, as I had to mulligan to 5. I got emrakul out but it was too late; there were too many rats out already and I was overrun. Camstudio crashed so I have no video.
Run #4: Lost on round 1
AI dropped Sol Ring / Thorn of Amethyst and then Trinisphere, and I was screwed.Run #5: I got to round 10, and then some weirdass bug occurred such that whenever I tried to play a land, it would ask 'pick a target creature' and of course I couldn't, and then the land bounced back into my hand. I then used my chaos orb to get a black lotus, but the same thing happened when I tried to play that. Hopefully you won't have that shit happen to you... anyway, I'm not going to play this one again, since I think you've seen enough, and I'm tired of it, especially since I beat it in run #1 but the stupid recording program only captured a tiny square in the middle of my screen, so you couldn't see any of the action. http://uploading.com/files/fd74f3b3/van ... ance2.avi/
Last edited by aww1979 on 25 Jan 2011, 22:08, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Beating the Challenges - Tutorial
by aww1979 » 01 Jan 2011, 15:55
Set #1
Challenge #3: Chipping Away
In this challenge, you lose 2 life and AI gains 2 life, times the number of the round you are on. Thus, the rounds play as follows:
For obvious reasons, this challenge has no round 10 :p If memory serves, the AI decks you face are random each time. The emrakul oath deck I built for the first two challenges will almost certainly fail during the later rounds where the life total is low, so I will build a white weenie lifegain deck, which is what I did when this challenge was first created.
The deck I built just now is this:
The idea is you have lots of weenies, most of which give you life, so that you can survive until you get enough creatures to overwhelm the opponent. Augury Adept was not available when I did this challenge before, but since it is a kithkin and it's an excellent lifegain/carddraw card, I added it. I also added 3 Kor Firewalker as a metagame choice; the direct damage red decks can be a real danger if you see them in the last few rounds. Ajani and Baneslayer have only three copies each because of their higher casting costs; you don't want to see more than maybe one of those early on.
Run #1: (win) One of the earlier rounds (I think round 2 or 3) was actually the one I came the closest to losing. I kept a one land hand that wasn't very strong, but fortunately it was early enough that I had enough life to survive, barely. All the other rounds were quite simple. I did get lucky in that the AI got manascrewed a couple times, but I was in pretty good shape anyway and could've handled anything that the AI decks had. I did find the Kor Firewalker to help immensely against the red decks, but the Augury Adept was not particularly useful in most games, since at 1WW for a 2/2 it is a bit slow, compared to the rest of the deck. You might have better luck swapping it out for either some more removal like Path to Exile or some more weenies, like Goldmeadow Harrier. If you are worried about a particular deck (as I was about the red direct damage decks) you might swap the augury adepts for something to fight that particular deck. http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZO1OJEQU
Challenge #3: Chipping Away
In this challenge, you lose 2 life and AI gains 2 life, times the number of the round you are on. Thus, the rounds play as follows:
- chipping away rounds life totals: | Open
For obvious reasons, this challenge has no round 10 :p If memory serves, the AI decks you face are random each time. The emrakul oath deck I built for the first two challenges will almost certainly fail during the later rounds where the life total is low, so I will build a white weenie lifegain deck, which is what I did when this challenge was first created.
The deck I built just now is this:
- White weenie lifegain deck | Open
The idea is you have lots of weenies, most of which give you life, so that you can survive until you get enough creatures to overwhelm the opponent. Augury Adept was not available when I did this challenge before, but since it is a kithkin and it's an excellent lifegain/carddraw card, I added it. I also added 3 Kor Firewalker as a metagame choice; the direct damage red decks can be a real danger if you see them in the last few rounds. Ajani and Baneslayer have only three copies each because of their higher casting costs; you don't want to see more than maybe one of those early on.
Run #1: (win) One of the earlier rounds (I think round 2 or 3) was actually the one I came the closest to losing. I kept a one land hand that wasn't very strong, but fortunately it was early enough that I had enough life to survive, barely. All the other rounds were quite simple. I did get lucky in that the AI got manascrewed a couple times, but I was in pretty good shape anyway and could've handled anything that the AI decks had. I did find the Kor Firewalker to help immensely against the red decks, but the Augury Adept was not particularly useful in most games, since at 1WW for a 2/2 it is a bit slow, compared to the rest of the deck. You might have better luck swapping it out for either some more removal like Path to Exile or some more weenies, like Goldmeadow Harrier. If you are worried about a particular deck (as I was about the red direct damage decks) you might swap the augury adepts for something to fight that particular deck. http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZO1OJEQU
Last edited by aww1979 on 25 Jan 2011, 22:09, edited 2 times in total.
Re: Beating the Challenges - Tutorial
by aww1979 » 02 Jan 2011, 17:21
Set #1
Challenge #4: Onslaught
In this challenge, the AI casts one spell (predetermined) for free during each of its upkeeps. In my opinion, this is one of the most difficult challenges because your deck has to be fast as well as resilient against a very mean selection of spells. The deck I used was a tendrils storm deck out of my playdeck directory, and with a few card changes (using Time Spiral in place of Mind's Desire, because MD might be locked for you, and changing 4x Meditate into 1x Meditate, 1x Cruel Bargain, 1x Infernal Contract, 1x Night's Whisper in an attempt to fight the Meddling Mage round) Another clever trick to beat the Meddling Mage round is to include fetchlands; they don't work so well in the deck I used, but if you use a different deck, they are great. In addition to their usual awesomeness, the AI always picks your first nonland card in your library to name, so if you shuffle your library, you'll draw something it didn't name.
Unlike the previous challenges I have demonstrated so far, I do *NOT* expect to win this one on my first run. Also, unlike the previous challenges, this deck takes a fair amount of skill to play; the three previous ones were pretty much brainless decks. To oversimplify the deck, you should 1) play all your mana sources, 2) draw some cards, and see if you can get and cast Tendrils for the win 3) go to step #1
Run #1: Ran out of gas on round #2 (had mana but no more card draw)
Run #2: On round 5, I had what was an almost guaranteed first turn win, but when I cast Wheel of Fortune, my new hand was 3 lands, 2 rituals, a mox and a sol ring
Against the Meddling Mage round, that meant I had to concede.
Run #3: (win) There were a few tense moments this run. The worst was on the sliver deck, where I cast a Demonic Tutor for Tendrils of Agony; if it resolved, I'd win, but if the AI had Force of Will, I'd lose. It resolved
http://uploading.com/files/87a648ed/onslaught.avi/
Challenge #4: Onslaught
In this challenge, the AI casts one spell (predetermined) for free during each of its upkeeps. In my opinion, this is one of the most difficult challenges because your deck has to be fast as well as resilient against a very mean selection of spells. The deck I used was a tendrils storm deck out of my playdeck directory, and with a few card changes (using Time Spiral in place of Mind's Desire, because MD might be locked for you, and changing 4x Meditate into 1x Meditate, 1x Cruel Bargain, 1x Infernal Contract, 1x Night's Whisper in an attempt to fight the Meddling Mage round) Another clever trick to beat the Meddling Mage round is to include fetchlands; they don't work so well in the deck I used, but if you use a different deck, they are great. In addition to their usual awesomeness, the AI always picks your first nonland card in your library to name, so if you shuffle your library, you'll draw something it didn't name.
- Tendrils Deck | Open
Unlike the previous challenges I have demonstrated so far, I do *NOT* expect to win this one on my first run. Also, unlike the previous challenges, this deck takes a fair amount of skill to play; the three previous ones were pretty much brainless decks. To oversimplify the deck, you should 1) play all your mana sources, 2) draw some cards, and see if you can get and cast Tendrils for the win 3) go to step #1
- The enemy decks you will face are: | Open
Run #1: Ran out of gas on round #2 (had mana but no more card draw)
Run #2: On round 5, I had what was an almost guaranteed first turn win, but when I cast Wheel of Fortune, my new hand was 3 lands, 2 rituals, a mox and a sol ring
Against the Meddling Mage round, that meant I had to concede.Run #3: (win) There were a few tense moments this run. The worst was on the sliver deck, where I cast a Demonic Tutor for Tendrils of Agony; if it resolved, I'd win, but if the AI had Force of Will, I'd lose. It resolved
http://uploading.com/files/87a648ed/onslaught.avi/
Last edited by aww1979 on 25 Jan 2011, 22:10, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Beating the Challenges - Tutorial
by aww1979 » 16 Jan 2011, 07:28
Set #1
Challenge #5: Shandalar 2.0
I could swear that I'd done a few attempts with this before the SSA tournament started, but if so, the results are lost. Anyway, for this challenge, the first 5 rounds you have 10 life and the AI has 50 life and 2 permanents in play, so you have to be able to deal with that. Then, in round 9, you have to be able to deal with Blood Moon/Titania's Song, and in round 10, you have to be able to deal with all five Hondens in play. (yes, really!)
This is one of the hardest challenges in the list, so be prepared to take many attempts, regardless of your deck. If memory serves, I beat it originally with a deck called 'boring angel' which used Tinker to get Platinum Angel out and slowly poke the AI to death. I'll think about what to use and give it a try in the next day or two.
I thought about it for awhile after making some attemps before the SSA tournament (dunno where that post went) and decided to try a dredge deck today.
If you have them unlocked, Street Wraith, Leyline of the Void, and especially Serum Powder are great additions, but I will play without them. The idea is to mulligan until you get a Bazaar of Baghdad in hand, then keep using it to put dredge cards into the graveyard and dredge them. Ideally you want to have tons of stuff in your graveyard, especially Bridge from Below copies, then flashback Dread Return to bring back Flame-Kin Zealot, making lots of zombies and pumping/hasting them and then attacking in one massive attack. There are some various control spells that are used (ones that have alternate costs since you don't need mana) and the one that isn't traditionally used (that I've ever seen) that I did use here is Contagion; the rest is pretty typical. Angel of Despair and Iona, Shield of Emeria are there in case you need to dredge up some kind of answer (like Angel of Despair to kill Moat or Platinum Angel) and Pact of Negation is there in case you need to counter a Fog or something on the turn you would win. (also a card I don't recall ever seeing in such a list)
Run #1: (crash) Game locked up on round 2 when I got too many zombies out. I hope this isn't a recurring problem; I haven't really played dredge much.
Run #2: (crash) I started this one a few days after round 1, as I didn't have time until now. The games are playing extremely slowly on my computer, so I've been pausing the recordings to cut several minutes of waiting out of them, and doing other things in between. This game also crashed when I attacked on round 2 with about 20 zombies. I think that dredge will be quite successful for someone whose computer is more powerful than mine; my old one doesn't seem to be able to handle it, as plays slow almost to a halt with that many creatures in play.
Run #3: (crash) Game locked up on round 1 after attacking with a zombie army. Of note is that I would have won the game even after mulliganing to ONE card and NOT getting a bazaar of baghdad, though I did topdeck one on turn 2. That's how good dredge is... if your computer can handle it. At this point I am going to change to an Oath deck, because it is quite clear that I will NEVER make it through 10 rounds if this keeps happening.
Run #4: (loss) Made it all the way to round #10 with an Oath/Emrakul deck, only to find that an opening hand including Black Lotus and Oath of Druids and playing first is TOO SLOW against this round :p Back to the drawing board...
Okay, I'm going to move on to the next challenges for now and come back to this one. I think it can be beaten fairly easily with dredge, as I've said, but it keeps locking up for me.
edit:
The goal of this deck is to tutor for Tinker and then get Platinum Angel out, with various cards to stall or go through the deck faster. Nevinyrral's Disk is primarily for round 10 to destroy the hondens, Mirror Universe is primarily for the first 5 rounds to speed up games against the 50 life opponents, and there are zero Seat of the Synod in order to help get around Blood Moon in round 9.
Run #5: (Run #1 with this deck) (crash) Made it to round 9, but then the game froze on the AIs turn. I went to bed and got up the next morning, and it was still thinking, so I gave up :p
Run #6: (loss) Got to round 4, barely, as the AI misplayed twice on round 3 when it could have won, and then was overwhelmed by the elf deck weenies as I got a slow hand with no mana acceleration.
Run #7: (loss) Made it to round 10, but the AI chose play first. I thought I'd have to discard 5 cards during its upkeep, so I didn't mulligan. If I'd only known... the AI played its hondens in its first upkeep and didn't get to use them that turn. I ended up keeping a bad hand, and while I maximized my chances of getting out of the situation, I was unsuccessful in drawing a way out.
At this point, I decided to modify the boring angel deck slightly. Removing the plumeveils, I added Darksteel Colossus, Time Vault, Voltaic Key, and Mox Opal, and then changed out some of the islands for 4x Seat of the Synod. That will make round #9 tougher, but the other rounds easier, as there will be more Tinker targets.
Run #8: (loss) Lost on round 2 with a piss-poor hand, while I was overwhelmed by the AI using Preeminent Captain to bring free stuff out. I stalled with Manowars but it wasn't enough.
Run #9: (loss) Lost on round 2 again even faster than last time. It is very hard to beat a 2/1 and 3/3 when the AI plays first...
Run #10: (loss) Lost AGAIN on round 2. See above.
Run #11: (loss) Lost on round #1 when my Man-o-War got hit with Daze on turn 3, so I couldn't unsummon the Serendib Efreet, and got pwned.
Run #12: (loss) Lost on round #2. That one, and round 10, seem to be the worst ones. I'm going to swamp the Time Vault/Voltaic Key combo and two of the Sleight of Hand for 4x Preordain, which I just realized is strictly better than Sleight of Hand :p
Run #13: (loss) Lost on round #2. Again.
After finding out I can use a 40 card deck, I trimmed the Boring Angel deck down to the following:
Run #14: (loss) Got wiped out on round 2 with a quick AI start and a weak hand.
Run #15: (win) Sadly, my recording program locked up, probably because magic was taking so many resources :p
Round 9 was a bit tricky, but once Echoing Truth bounced Titania's Song, I was able to play my artifacts and move along fairly easily.
Round 10 I mulliganed to 6 cards and had Tinker, Island, Echoing Truth, and Mox Pearl, amongst others. I kept it, and playing first, bounced the Honden of Night's Reach on turn 1 to buy me time, and prayed that I would draw into mana in time. With luck, I drew a mana source next turn (Sol Ring in my case, but Island, Mox or Black Lotus would have also worked) and then cast it and Tinker for Nevinyrral's Disk. AI attacked and hit me with the red Honden again, and on my next turn, with 8 life remaining, I activated the Disk and blew everything away. After that, it was just a waiting game until I drew the mana and spells to win with.
With a 40 card deck, the play felt pretty much the same, merely more reliable. The last round is always the worst, but hopefully with the increased consistency of a 40 card deck you won't have to repeat it too often. Statistically, you will go first 75% of the time on that round, assuming the AI is just tossing a coin when it decides.
Challenge #5: Shandalar 2.0
I could swear that I'd done a few attempts with this before the SSA tournament started, but if so, the results are lost. Anyway, for this challenge, the first 5 rounds you have 10 life and the AI has 50 life and 2 permanents in play, so you have to be able to deal with that. Then, in round 9, you have to be able to deal with Blood Moon/Titania's Song, and in round 10, you have to be able to deal with all five Hondens in play. (yes, really!)
This is one of the hardest challenges in the list, so be prepared to take many attempts, regardless of your deck. If memory serves, I beat it originally with a deck called 'boring angel' which used Tinker to get Platinum Angel out and slowly poke the AI to death. I'll think about what to use and give it a try in the next day or two.
- The rounds: | Open
I thought about it for awhile after making some attemps before the SSA tournament (dunno where that post went) and decided to try a dredge deck today.
- dredge deck list | Open
If you have them unlocked, Street Wraith, Leyline of the Void, and especially Serum Powder are great additions, but I will play without them. The idea is to mulligan until you get a Bazaar of Baghdad in hand, then keep using it to put dredge cards into the graveyard and dredge them. Ideally you want to have tons of stuff in your graveyard, especially Bridge from Below copies, then flashback Dread Return to bring back Flame-Kin Zealot, making lots of zombies and pumping/hasting them and then attacking in one massive attack. There are some various control spells that are used (ones that have alternate costs since you don't need mana) and the one that isn't traditionally used (that I've ever seen) that I did use here is Contagion; the rest is pretty typical. Angel of Despair and Iona, Shield of Emeria are there in case you need to dredge up some kind of answer (like Angel of Despair to kill Moat or Platinum Angel) and Pact of Negation is there in case you need to counter a Fog or something on the turn you would win. (also a card I don't recall ever seeing in such a list)
Run #1: (crash) Game locked up on round 2 when I got too many zombies out. I hope this isn't a recurring problem; I haven't really played dredge much.
Run #2: (crash) I started this one a few days after round 1, as I didn't have time until now. The games are playing extremely slowly on my computer, so I've been pausing the recordings to cut several minutes of waiting out of them, and doing other things in between. This game also crashed when I attacked on round 2 with about 20 zombies. I think that dredge will be quite successful for someone whose computer is more powerful than mine; my old one doesn't seem to be able to handle it, as plays slow almost to a halt with that many creatures in play.
Run #3: (crash) Game locked up on round 1 after attacking with a zombie army. Of note is that I would have won the game even after mulliganing to ONE card and NOT getting a bazaar of baghdad, though I did topdeck one on turn 2. That's how good dredge is... if your computer can handle it. At this point I am going to change to an Oath deck, because it is quite clear that I will NEVER make it through 10 rounds if this keeps happening.
Run #4: (loss) Made it all the way to round #10 with an Oath/Emrakul deck, only to find that an opening hand including Black Lotus and Oath of Druids and playing first is TOO SLOW against this round :p Back to the drawing board...
Okay, I'm going to move on to the next challenges for now and come back to this one. I think it can be beaten fairly easily with dredge, as I've said, but it keeps locking up for me.
edit:
- Using the Boring Angel deck: | Open
The goal of this deck is to tutor for Tinker and then get Platinum Angel out, with various cards to stall or go through the deck faster. Nevinyrral's Disk is primarily for round 10 to destroy the hondens, Mirror Universe is primarily for the first 5 rounds to speed up games against the 50 life opponents, and there are zero Seat of the Synod in order to help get around Blood Moon in round 9.
Run #5: (Run #1 with this deck) (crash) Made it to round 9, but then the game froze on the AIs turn. I went to bed and got up the next morning, and it was still thinking, so I gave up :p
Run #6: (loss) Got to round 4, barely, as the AI misplayed twice on round 3 when it could have won, and then was overwhelmed by the elf deck weenies as I got a slow hand with no mana acceleration.
Run #7: (loss) Made it to round 10, but the AI chose play first. I thought I'd have to discard 5 cards during its upkeep, so I didn't mulligan. If I'd only known... the AI played its hondens in its first upkeep and didn't get to use them that turn. I ended up keeping a bad hand, and while I maximized my chances of getting out of the situation, I was unsuccessful in drawing a way out.
At this point, I decided to modify the boring angel deck slightly. Removing the plumeveils, I added Darksteel Colossus, Time Vault, Voltaic Key, and Mox Opal, and then changed out some of the islands for 4x Seat of the Synod. That will make round #9 tougher, but the other rounds easier, as there will be more Tinker targets.
- Boring Angel (revised) | Open
Run #8: (loss) Lost on round 2 with a piss-poor hand, while I was overwhelmed by the AI using Preeminent Captain to bring free stuff out. I stalled with Manowars but it wasn't enough.
Run #9: (loss) Lost on round 2 again even faster than last time. It is very hard to beat a 2/1 and 3/3 when the AI plays first...
Run #10: (loss) Lost AGAIN on round 2. See above.
Run #11: (loss) Lost on round #1 when my Man-o-War got hit with Daze on turn 3, so I couldn't unsummon the Serendib Efreet, and got pwned.
Run #12: (loss) Lost on round #2. That one, and round 10, seem to be the worst ones. I'm going to swamp the Time Vault/Voltaic Key combo and two of the Sleight of Hand for 4x Preordain, which I just realized is strictly better than Sleight of Hand :p
Run #13: (loss) Lost on round #2. Again.
After finding out I can use a 40 card deck, I trimmed the Boring Angel deck down to the following:
- 40 Card Boring Angel | Open
Run #14: (loss) Got wiped out on round 2 with a quick AI start and a weak hand.
Run #15: (win) Sadly, my recording program locked up, probably because magic was taking so many resources :p
Round 9 was a bit tricky, but once Echoing Truth bounced Titania's Song, I was able to play my artifacts and move along fairly easily.
Round 10 I mulliganed to 6 cards and had Tinker, Island, Echoing Truth, and Mox Pearl, amongst others. I kept it, and playing first, bounced the Honden of Night's Reach on turn 1 to buy me time, and prayed that I would draw into mana in time. With luck, I drew a mana source next turn (Sol Ring in my case, but Island, Mox or Black Lotus would have also worked) and then cast it and Tinker for Nevinyrral's Disk. AI attacked and hit me with the red Honden again, and on my next turn, with 8 life remaining, I activated the Disk and blew everything away. After that, it was just a waiting game until I drew the mana and spells to win with.
With a 40 card deck, the play felt pretty much the same, merely more reliable. The last round is always the worst, but hopefully with the increased consistency of a 40 card deck you won't have to repeat it too often. Statistically, you will go first 75% of the time on that round, assuming the AI is just tossing a coin when it decides.
Last edited by aww1979 on 28 Jan 2011, 00:52, edited 7 times in total.
Re: Beating the Challenges - Tutorial
by aww1979 » 21 Jan 2011, 01:33
Set #1
Challenge #6: BANNED
This challenge is pretty easy, as long as you make a deck with several colours, and try not to rely on one colour; i.e. make each of three colours roughly equal in your deck. I basically just copy/pasted my sliver deck that I used the first time around, with a few minor modifications, mostly to include Virulent Sliver, which was uncoded at the time. (it saved my ass in round 10 :p)
Run #1: (crash) Round 4 ended up in a long, drawn out stalemate, and eventually locked up due to the number of creatures in play.
Run #2: (win) Had no real difficulties in most games. Round 8 requires you to mulligan until you get Aether Vial, which can be bad if you don't get it, and Round 10 requires you to mulligan until you get Moxes, and hopefully Aether Vial as well. In round 10 all I cast was Mox Emerald and two Virulent Sliver, and AI only cast two moxes, dark ritual and Juzam Djinn. My slivers outraced his juzam! Go poison! (sadly video recorder crashed when I tried to save it... this one's pretty easy, so you shouldn't have much trouble except for the last two rounds, where you have to mulligan a lot)
Owing to the deck being all artifacts/land/creatures, I don't know what is banned on round 9 :p When I did the challenge when it first came out, I must've used a planeswalker and it was from my old notes that I know that they are banned on round 7.
edit: added spoilers for round 7 and 9 that wronskian gave me.
Challenge #6: BANNED
This challenge is pretty easy, as long as you make a deck with several colours, and try not to rely on one colour; i.e. make each of three colours roughly equal in your deck. I basically just copy/pasted my sliver deck that I used the first time around, with a few minor modifications, mostly to include Virulent Sliver, which was uncoded at the time. (it saved my ass in round 10 :p)
- The rounds: | Open
- White/green/red sliver deck with Aether Vial: | Open
Run #1: (crash) Round 4 ended up in a long, drawn out stalemate, and eventually locked up due to the number of creatures in play.
Run #2: (win) Had no real difficulties in most games. Round 8 requires you to mulligan until you get Aether Vial, which can be bad if you don't get it, and Round 10 requires you to mulligan until you get Moxes, and hopefully Aether Vial as well. In round 10 all I cast was Mox Emerald and two Virulent Sliver, and AI only cast two moxes, dark ritual and Juzam Djinn. My slivers outraced his juzam!
Go poison! (sadly video recorder crashed when I tried to save it... this one's pretty easy, so you shouldn't have much trouble except for the last two rounds, where you have to mulligan a lot)Owing to the deck being all artifacts/land/creatures, I don't know what is banned on round 9 :p When I did the challenge when it first came out, I must've used a planeswalker and it was from my old notes that I know that they are banned on round 7.
edit: added spoilers for round 7 and 9 that wronskian gave me.
Last edited by aww1979 on 05 Feb 2011, 02:09, edited 3 times in total.
Re: Beating the Challenges - Tutorial
by Nyktorion » 23 Jan 2011, 00:22
I have a comment about Shandalar 2.0: even without the crashes, won't round 9 be really bad for dredge decks, due to Blood Moon blocking the Bazaars?
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Re: Beating the Challenges - Tutorial
by aww1979 » 23 Jan 2011, 20:35
I had thought about that, but my plan was to keep whatever seven card hand I got, regardless of content, and then after my first draw, discard a dredge card and begin the engine that way. It's less than ideal, but I think it's possible to beat it with luck.
Re: Beating the Challenges - Tutorial
by jatill » 24 Jan 2011, 13:15
I like the original way of beating Shandalar 2.0: Mulligan into Tinker (or Personal Tutor) and land a turn 2 Platinum Angel.
Apps by jatill: http://www.slightlymagic.net/wiki/Other_Apps_by_jatill
Re: Beating the Challenges - Tutorial
by Cognis » 24 Jan 2011, 14:08
Won't do any good in the final round where honden can deal 5 damage to Platinum Angel, unless you have Lightning Greaves as well you'll lose.
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Re: Beating the Challenges - Tutorial
by jatill » 24 Jan 2011, 14:17
It CAN do 5 damage, but the AI isn't smart enough. Alternately, Tinker for Disk.Cognis wrote:Won't do any good in the final round where honden can deal 5 damage to Platinum Angel, unless you have Lightning Greaves as well you'll lose.
Apps by jatill: http://www.slightlymagic.net/wiki/Other_Apps_by_jatill
Re: Beating the Challenges - Tutorial
by Cognis » 24 Jan 2011, 14:28
Maybe it won't go for Platinum Angel but it goes for Pit Scorpion when I had Worship, the disk is a good idea but I have a deck for that challenge, just waiting to get Serum Powder once 5-1 becomes history.
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Re: Beating the Challenges - Tutorial
by aww1979 » 24 Jan 2011, 19:54
Maybe I'll have to go back to the 'boring angel' deck, but I really didn't want to play that one, because it was so boring :p I don't remember how many tries it took to beat with that deck, but I think even then it took a few evenings back when I did it. (not counting all the failed attempts with other decks!)
Re: Beating the Challenges - Tutorial
by Cognis » 24 Jan 2011, 20:42
I have a UW deck that uses Worship (free Pit Scorpion) and Moat to delay, Platinum Angel as a way of not losing, Swords to Plowshares to deal with initial threats and Show and Tell with Emrakul to win a little faster, Personal Tutor and enough basic lands to get around the Blood Moon round although I'm missing Serum Powder to get consistent turn 1 Emrakul since it's the only way to win in the final round.
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