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I just used Elves for this challenge. It was fast enough to be able to beat most of the deks without a problem, and I find it fizzles less often than Tendrils or Flash combo (even if it isn't quite as potentially explosive as those two). Plus, even when it does fizzle, having 6-8 elves in play will usually discourage the AI from attacking anyway =)

The only real problem I had was with the last boss - I forgot Chaos Orb had the second ability! The Reaper King deck can pile damage on fast, and with an untuned deck board position can get out of control quite quickly. I almost beat it the first time with a green deck with a turn 2 Rofellos, but he cast Gaddock Teeg the turn before I was going to cast Rocket Launcher FTW (I couldn't attack into his army anymore). Then I finally got him with a red deck, before I realised I could have Ring of Maruf'd a win against the AI much easier!

Beat challenge #2 with a kithkin soldier deck. Nothing special at all about it, except that it's more fun than Winter's Orb! It took me all night to beat it because I kept having it crash on about round 2 where it would say something like player 12 gauntlet 10, but the trick to avoiding this is to close down Magic and Launcher.exe completely and then start a new Launcher window, rather than just play again after losing.

This time I was careful (not spamming enter after Tabernacle upkeeps! Yay white weenie!) and it told me that one card that I shall not name was unlocked. Probably out of those five I saw in deckbuilder I didn't unlock them all then, and didn't see the message. I thought I'd tried all five cards, but I must have missed one.

Here's deck #2

;kithkin and soldier
;
;#oldgames
;
;08/08/2009
;1
;4th Edition
;

.1933 4 Figure of Destiny
.1288 4 Goldmeadow Harrier
.1466 4 Goldmeadow Stalwart
.1414 4 Knight of Meadowgrain
.1458 4 Wizened Cenn
.1555 4 Preeminent Captain
.1941 4 Ranger of Eos
.1556 2 Captain of the Watch
.1558 4 Elite Vanguard
.1327 4 Field Marshal
.1721 2 Kjeldoran Outpost
.694 1 Karakas
.188 14 Plains
.1950 4 Windbrisk Heights
.528 1 Strip Mine

There's essentially no skill at all to using this deck, you just play and go. Probably the only thing that even takes half a brain is Preeminent Captain, because half the time I forgot to hold a soldier and hardcast them before attacking, but if you aren't as dumb as me that won't be an issue. Also remember if you play a soldier with Preeminent Captain and that new soldier is your third attacker, you can use Windbrisk Heights. Other than that, you can't make a mistake in play.

The hardest decks to defeat are the two you can't do anything about in your deck design: Momir, and the last one. You'll need luck here, though skill helps just as much; unfortunately, neither of which I can help you with :p

For Momir, I typically don't summon anything until at least turn 3 unless there's a massive threat on the board already. (I've seen more AI Terravores tonight than I care to say) AI error should win the game for you unless you get really unlucky, though.

For the last deck, I was getting it handed to me until I got a Sword of fire and ice; the prot blue helped quite a bit. Even then, I was still getting schooled, but a timely Chaos Orb to get Martial Coup with X=5 the turn before I lost turned everything around and won the game singlehandedly.

I'm off to figure out which card(s) I unlocked in challenge #1, and maybe rip up some Terravores if I can find some.

EDIT: Ok I figured out which card challenge #1 unlocked. Unfortunately it's the one out of the five that I least wanted :p

I beat challenge #2 with a kithkin/soldier weenie deck. It was pretty straightforward; the only hard matches were Momir and Reaper King/Chaos Orb, neither of which even the best deck can prepare for. I swear if I ever see another third turn AI Terravore on Momir I'll shoot myself. The real kicker came when I was praying for a Nekrataal on my turn #4 to kill a Terravore, got some stuipd griffin instead, and then the AI got Nekrataal on his turn 4 and killed the griffin!

Momir mostly comes down to luck, but fortunately since it's about the third matchup, you don't lose much if it goes poorly. Reaper King, however, is the last one. I beat Reaper by the skin of my teeth, playing defensively the whole time, saving the Orb's activation for the turn I was going to die. I pulled Martial Coup with X=5 (was sure glad I had 7 mana :p), blew away about five 6/6+ dudes, half of which had flying, (down to my last creature at this point) and dropped five soldiers with the AI at 6 life.

Most of the other ones aren't very hard. Prodigal Sorcerer is mostly harmless. Royal Assassin wasn't bad, but it can be handled; Akroma was weak, even though it grants some nice abilities, 1/1 trampling first strike goblins aren't really that scary; Oni of Whatever was a pushover since it doesn't know how to use it properly; the Green one that makes your first spell cost 1 more was annoying, but doable. That green vanguard was probably the toughest one where you actually had your own deck, and then the Assassin one.

The first matchup is kind of weird, though; the 'random' deck isn't very random. The first time I played it, the AI had (I kid you not) about twenty Platinum Angel in its deck. Other times it was Tetravus, or sometimes a crappy card, but there was always something it had a LOT of, and everything else seemed to be 4-ofs. I think they're still random ones, since the decks were different every time, and obviously not constructed, but the distributions seemed to be always the same (land + many 4-ofs + 1 20+-of, and a larger than normal artifact supply) and certain cards came up every single time, like Spellbook.

edit: oh yeah the one I missed is the serra angel lifegain one. That one's easy too, because it doesn't seem to have any active threats besides Millstone.

Recommended Strategy: Any good deck should do. Just keep slugging away until you get lucky enough to beat Momir and Reaper King on the same run. You won't lose very often except to those two. Reaper King in particular is quite challenging; a 6/6 on turn 3 is normal, followed by worse. Momir is at least balanced between the players, except you (hopefully!) have more skill.

Tried challenge 3 last night, but screwed up on the final matchup. (clicked wrong land and couldn't answer to a first turn Elite Vanguard; if you've done that one, you know why this was bad news) I'll save my decklist for another thread about challenge 3. Hint: Avatar of Hope is my secret weapon for that one :p

edit: oh yeah, for challenge 2, I used this:

;kithkin and soldier
;
;#oldgames
;
;08/08/2009
;1
;4th Edition
;

.1933 4 Figure of Destiny
.1288 4 Goldmeadow Harrier
.1466 4 Goldmeadow Stalwart
.1414 4 Knight of Meadowgrain
.1458 4 Wizened Cenn
.1555 4 Preeminent Captain
.1941 4 Ranger of Eos
.1556 2 Captain of the Watch
.1558 4 Elite Vanguard
.1327 4 Field Marshal
.1721 2 Kjeldoran Outpost
.694 1 Karakas
.188 14 Plains
.1950 4 Windbrisk Heights
.528 1 Strip Mine

There's basically zero skill in using this deck, just dump creatures (which is all there are, no other spells) and attack with them, repeat as needed.

For the 3rd challenge, be very, very glad that jatill decided to change the final deck. During testing it was a burn deck with Bolts, Shard Volley, Spark Elemental etc. Beatable (but you'd have to play through it about a billion times to get lucky enough), but that kind of difficulty needed to be kept for a later challenge (say, the 5th one...).

By the way, the last 3 are my favourite challenges, I think they are the most interesting - I especially loved the 4th. Keep going!

somacat wrote:For the 3rd challenge, be very, very glad that jatill decided to change the final deck. During testing it was a burn deck with Bolts, Shard Volley, Spark Elemental etc. Beatable (but you'd have to play through it about a billion times to get lucky enough), but that kind of difficulty needed to be kept for a later challenge (say, the 5th one...).

By the way, the last 3 are my favourite challenges, I think they are the most interesting - I especially loved the 4th. Keep going!

Challenge 7 has been planned, but won't be released until I can add 7 new Zendikar cards. As for Challenge 2, here's a bonus challenge:
Depending on what color deck you get in the final round, you can shut the opponent's entire deck down with a SINGLE card that you can tutor for, and play on turn 3 or 4. So the challenge it to figure out what those killer cards are in each color.

I managed to beat the first challenge using the following deck:

;T1-3Color Control
;
;User
;User E-Mail
;07/08/2009
;1
;4th Edition
;

3 Path to Exile
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Balance
4 Moat
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Black Lotus
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
2 Platinum Angel
4 Flooded Strand
1 Library of Alexandria
4 Tundra
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Mystical Tutor
3 Polluted Delta
2 Underground Sea
3 Arcane Sanctum
2 Enlightened Tutor
1 Lightning Greaves

Simply use Moat and wait until you can cast Platinum Angel, against some decks you'll have to wait to have counter backup, this deck is quite slow, but does his job >:3

Challenge 3 has totally gotten the best of me. The problem is that the order of opponents is random, so even if I played the old style of the Angel deck and slapped down a turn 1 Moat, I won't know if it's going to be of any use.

Plus, the whole bad draws thing has gotten to me, which sucks when you have very little starting life. I had one time where I'm playing a deck that uses only 1-3 casting cost creatures, most of which can be summoned with a 3 counter Aether Vial. So in one of my matches my opening hand has 1 land and not even a Vial/Clamp. I mulligan, only to draw 6 with no mana sources whatsoever. Down to 5, I STILL have no mana. I go down to 4, and again, no mana. Knowing I've already lost, I mulliganed down to 3, only to draw 3 land. I live through 3 draw phases before being killed, and guess what? All 3 draws were also land.

I also had a rather interesting time with one opponent. I'm basically playing Fish, and after two of my creatures are hit by Path of Exile, I throw down a Meddling Mage with Sword of Fire and Ice already on the board. I figured since he'd already exhausted two of his Paths, I'd call something else, and picked Moat. So naturally he casts a 3rd Path of Exile on my Mage, and then his 4th as soon as I drop another creature. Nice hax.

I just beated challenge number 2, was waaaaaaaaaaaay easier than challenge 1, i used a combo elves deck, and did it at my first try with such deck, i had already tried other decks before, though.
Here's the deck:

;T1-Black Elves
;
;User
;User E-Mail
;04/07/2009
;1
;4th Edition
;

.1997 3 Birchlore Rangers*
.1363 4 Elvish Visionary
.1856 4 Glimpse of Nature
.1934 4 Heritage Druid
.149 4 Llanowar Elves
.1939 4 Nettle Sentinel
.1974 4 Priest of Titania
.1942 1 Regal Force
.1852 4 Summoner's Pact
.1816 2 Wirewood Symbiote
.17 1 Black Lotus
.166 1 Mox Jet
.165 1 Mox Emerald
.1848 2 Tendrils of Agony
.62 1 Demonic Tutor
.333 1 Vampiric Tutor
.1714 4 Skullclamp
.12 4 Bayou
.91 2 Forest
.319 1 Gaea's Cradle
.1897 4 Land Grant
.1293 4 Fyndhorn Elves

I must be noob or unlucky, but I still can't win the 1st challenge with the winter orb deck. In the 7th or 8th duel I always get a bad hand, followed with bad mulligan (full land, no tutor or only finisher that don't help surviving the 3 1st round)

I don't know about your skill, but luck could be an issue. On challenge 3 I almost beat it on my third attempt, but I made a mistake and lost the game, and couldn't get as far with either that deck or any I tried after that. Still working on that one... :p The winter orb deck fails on challenge 3, though, because the burn deck wtfpwns it.

Usually with the winter orb deck, I mulliganed a lot and ideally would have something like 2-3 mana sources (1 being mox), at least one Propaganda/Collective Restraint (you don't usually need very many of these, the 8 copies are just to make sure you get it early) and a tutor or card drawing, even a howling mine/font of mythos. I also completely ignored any Glimpse the Unthinkable early on, because it doesn't help until later in the game, and I always played everything else in hand first, like the Howling Mines and Propagandas and all that.

I'm really confused (and frustrated) on the the Akroma battle. How is it that he puts out a first turn Goblin Lackey and then 3 or 4 other creatures for free? Usually he's attacking me for the first time with a 8/2 Goblin Piledriver and 3 other creatures. I keep reading the cards and the avatar, but I see no mention of an ability that would allow him to do this.

reng0r0 wrote:I'm really confused (and frustrated) on the the Akroma battle. How is it that he puts out a first turn Goblin Lackey and then 3 or 4 other creatures for free? Usually he's attacking me for the first time with a 8/2 Goblin Piledriver and 3 other creatures. I keep reading the cards and the avatar, but I see no mention of an ability that would allow him to do this.

That's a bug that I'm exploiting to make the challenge more difficult. Scummy, I know

jatill wrote:

reng0r0 wrote:I'm really confused (and frustrated) on the the Akroma battle. How is it that he puts out a first turn Goblin Lackey and then 3 or 4 other creatures for free? Usually he's attacking me for the first time with a 8/2 Goblin Piledriver and 3 other creatures. I keep reading the cards and the avatar, but I see no mention of an ability that would allow him to do this.

That's a bug that I'm exploiting to make the challenge more difficult. Scummy, I know

You're an evil, evil man.

I just lost at the second round against Akroma. He had eight goblins on play at the second round and one of them was Goblin Piledriver with flying for a total 16/2.
I always kept getting something like that, I'm just unlucky? What did you guys use against it?

Reid wrote:I just lost at the second round against Akroma. He had eight goblins on play at the second round and one of them was Goblin Piledriver with flying for a total 16/2.
I always kept getting something like that, I'm just unlucky? What did you guys use against it?

I feel for you. I got stuck on this one for a long time. In the end I just got lucky, and he didn't open with a turn one lackey. I ended up outracing him with an exalted deck.