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BANNED!
Challenge: 1-6
Unlocks: (Cursed Scroll)
Description: each round a different color or card type cannot be played
NavigationChallenge Index - Archive for Set 1


Please discuss this Challenge here!

Quick question about this challenge - on round 8, when it bans creatures, does it remove all creature cards from the deck, or just ban casting creature spells? I.e. can you still cast them with Aether Vial or by other means? Thanks.

They are still in your deck and you can use Aether Vial. That is what I did, with a sliver deck, to beat this one.

Anyone else notice that sometimes your own decks, not just the Challenge decks, get thrown at you when playing this? I saw to my amusement a dredge deck (fail) and my fun red-white sparkmage deck being used in two of my matches.

Anyway, I'm trying to build a R/G/W warrior deck, centered around Bramblewood Paragon, to beat this one. So far I've gotten deep already, but I can't seem to find enough white and red warriors to be safe when green is banned. Jotun Grunt, Indominable Ancients, and Cloudgoat Ranger are the only warrior-types in white, and I think Countryside Crasher and a few of the goblins are the only warriors for red. Do you think this is a viable deck, and if so, how can I improve it?

Thanks in advance.


.1929 4 Bramblewood Paragon
.1326 4 Wild Nacatl
.1367 2 Rip-Clan Crasher
.1464 1 Cloudgoat Ranger
.478 1 Jötun Grunt
.620 3 Countryside Crusher
.914 3 Goblin Bushwhacker
.1949 1 Wilt-Leaf Liege
.1743 3 Æther Vial
.1899 2 Living Wish
.84 2 Fireball
.1192 2 Worship
.1585 2 Baneslayer Angel
.1933 2 Figure of Destiny
.165 1 Mox Emerald
.168 1 Mox Ruby
.167 1 Mox Pearl
.166 1 Mox Jet
.169 1 Mox Sapphire
.17 1 Black Lotus
.241 4 Taiga
.212 4 Savannah
.189 4 Plateau
.722 2 Gemstone Mine
.188 1 Plains
.91 1 Forest
.164 1 Mountain
.240 2 Swords to Plowshares
.230 1 Sol Ring
.1358 1 Indomitable Ancients
.1495 1 Veteran Armorer

I'd strongly recommend NOT using ANY multicoloured cards in this challenge, because they get banned in more rounds than other cards. A multicoloured creature, for instance, is banned in multiple colour ban rounds and the creature ban round (so at least 3 rounds, more if it is triple or more coloured) whereas a single-colour creature is banned only in one colour round and the creature ban round.

Also, unless going against cards that specifically hate nonbasic lands, you should not use basic lands in a deck with more than one colour. Swap your basics for fetchlands or something like that.

Oblivion Ring would make for great removal, and make sure that you have some removal for all rounds. (Ring is enchantment, Plowshares is instant, Fireball is sorcery)

Use a 4th Aether Vial. Do it!

aww1979 wrote:I'd strongly recommend NOT using ANY multicoloured cards in this challenge, because they get banned in more rounds than other cards. A multicoloured creature, for instance, is banned in multiple colour ban rounds and the creature ban round (so at least 3 rounds, more if it is triple or more coloured) whereas a single-colour creature is banned only in one colour round and the creature ban round.

Also, unless going against cards that specifically hate nonbasic lands, you should not use basic lands in a deck with more than one colour. Swap your basics for fetchlands or something like that.

Oblivion Ring would make for great removal, and make sure that you have some removal for all rounds. (Ring is enchantment, Plowshares is instant, Fireball is sorcery)

Use a 4th Aether Vial. Do it!

Thanks for the suggestions! I may get rid of those gold cards, though I'll miss the extra warriors in the Crashers and the boosting effects of the two lieges. The reason for the three basic lands is to get something from the Path to Exile that I know at least one of the decks likes to sling. I will add some Oblivion Ring as per your advice.

I'm wondering if I should replace red or white with another color, like black? I may hopefully pick up a few more warrior tribals that way (haven't checked how many warriors are in black). Thanks.

Wow, I just got to the last round, and got wtfpwned. Starting 7 had no Mox, mulligan to 6 with one Mox Pearl, don't pick up any more mox or aether vial, comp gets out Juggernaut on turn 1. How does anyone win this without land? Seems like it would take a ton of luck on your draw plus a really bad draw from the comp to have a shot...

Haha, I simply cannot beat this challenge. I got to round 10 two more times only to fizzle out without enough luck/mana. Many more games have ended earlier. The "chokepoint" rounds, for me, are 2 (soldiers, blue banned), 5 (blue/green growth, white banned), and 6 (freaking Kithkin, artifacts banned). My current deck changed a lot, and is based on the idea of not dying, since I tend to do that alot. Hence the strategy for me is simply to get up some cheap big ground creatures and a Worship/Moat/Ali from Cairo, and then wait for the cavalry to arrive, in the form of Baneslayer Angel or Covetous Dragon. When it works well, it's great, but often I die due to lack of mana/inconsistency early on.

So, any advice on how to improve this "survival" deck would be great!


.1326 4 Wild Nacatl
.1743 4 Æther Vial
.1899 1 Living Wish
.1192 4 Worship
.1585 2 Baneslayer Angel
.165 1 Mox Emerald
.168 1 Mox Ruby
.167 1 Mox Pearl
.166 1 Mox Jet
.169 1 Mox Sapphire
.17 1 Black Lotus
.241 4 Taiga
.212 4 Savannah
.189 4 Plateau
.188 1 Plains
.91 1 Forest
.164 1 Mountain
.240 1 Swords to Plowshares
.230 1 Sol Ring
.1777 2 Covetous Dragon
.984 1 Arid Mesa
.1473 1 Windswept Heath
.1474 1 Wooded Foothills
.1308 1 Platinum Angel
.84 1 Fireball
.1371 1 Gaea's Anthem
.1314 2 Magus of the Moat
.394 2 Varchild's War-Riders
.993 1 Cinder Wall
.1733 1 Tarmogoyf
.1414 1 Knight of Meadowgrain
.292 1 Fauna Shaman
.792 1 Master of the Wild Hunt
.1118 1 Thrun, the Last Troll
.395 3 Ali from Cairo
.122 1 Elephant Grass

FINALLY, I beat this challenge - the longest I've spent by far on a challenge. With my final deck, I made my green suit a lot stronger, and it only took a few tries. I added Natural Order to get out Hellkite Overlord, and most importantly, I added four Magus of the Vineyard. This *may* be considered cheating, since the computer doesn't generally cast anything in its precombat main phase, but it really helped me get out those early Worship / Ali from Cairo /Magus of the Moat to preserve myself. The last round finally swung my way, with a Mox, Aether Vial, and Magus of the Moat in my starting hand, so I only had to survive 4 turns before I was covered. Wooooooooooo what a rush when I was done!

1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
4 Taiga
4 Savannah
4 Plateau
1 Plains
1 Forest
1 Mountain
1 Sol Ring
1 Arid Mesa
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills

4 Ali from Cairo
2 Baneslayer Angel
2 Covetous Dragon
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Hellkite Overlord
2 Magus of the Moat
4 Magus of the Vineyard
1 Platinum Angel
1 Varchild's War-Riders
3 Wild Nacatl

4 Æther Vial
4 Worship
1 Fireball
3 Natural Order
2 Swords to Plowshares

Hi,

I have beaten this challenge twice now, but I did not get any recognition from the game that I did. First time, the game just continued with the first duel in the 5:1 Odds challenge, and the second time (playing a newer version of the game) it just continued with the first duel in the Planeswalker Decimation challange. In both cases, they are the next challenge 'down the list'.

I´ve beaten the five first challenges in set 1 and those times, I got a message that 'card x has been unlocked' as soon as the next duel was about to start.

Anyone know what´s up with this, and if I can do something to make it work?
Cards do get banned, so I am in the challenge in some way. Green is banned against the Sharuum deck, black is banned against the 'gold creatures' deck, and so on.

Before duel #10, I have not gotten the message that I was about to meet 'the final opponent in the gauntlet' like I have in the other challenges.

You need to check if the Challenge mode is activated (checkboxe) and the opponement number is set to 11-12.

Once you beat the Challenge, if you get the unlock message and instant game over you need to close the game and restart Manalink, if you don't you will be bugged on any mode (solo duel or tournament).

It is the same thing if you lose, don't start again the challenge but restart ML.

Thanks for the help. Restarting after losses and setting the number of duels to 11 helped (it was 50 before, as per the instructions in the wiki).

The first thing I noticed was that now I got to play against the decks in the same order every time. Before, I met any of the first five decks at any time, mixed in with duels against decks from the playdeck folder. I hadn´t seen the Kithkin deck (round #6) and beyond.

jiansonz wrote:Thanks for the help. Restarting after losses and setting the number of duels to 11 helped (it was 50 before, as per the instructions in the wiki).

Here's how to play challenge mode: Choose the 'Gauntlet' option on the main screen. Check the 'Challenge Mode' checkbox. Fire up the gauntlet (1 game per match, and set # of matches to 50) and begin! If you're doing the first challenge (Challenge Set 1 - Tribal Trials), you'll notice that your opponent will start with a Kobold in play. That means everything is working.

[edit] General Rules:

To win a challenge you must win between 9 and 11 games in a row.

*cough*

Anyway good luck on the challenge, it should be a bit easier now

difficulties arise in round 6, if the AI is too quick start.


.166 1 Mox Jet
.6856 4 Жther Vial
.239 1 Swamp
.258 2 Underground Sea
.169 1 Mox Sapphire
.7587 1 Umezawa's Jitte
.12516 4 Baleful Strix
.9212 2 Mirror Entity
.9393 2 Mutavault
.216 2 Scrubland
.1488 3 Bloodstained Mire
.17 1 Black Lotus
.10703 4 Vampire Nighthawk
.10542 4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
.7811 4 Dark Confidant
.10706 4 Verdant Catacombs
.3452 1 Volrath's Stronghold
.6706 1 Lightning Greaves
.12 2 Bayou
.6887 2 Echoing Truth
.167 1 Mox Pearl
.1546 3 Mox Diamond
.165 1 Mox Emerald
.11449 1 Glissa, the Traitor
.11948 4 Fiend Hunter
.11754 1 Edric, Spymaster of Trest
.694 1 Karakas
.11564 1 Batterskull
.10841 1 Stoneforge Mystic

Had a ton of fun beating this challenge. I really wanted to force a combo despite some of the trickier stages. I went with a five color combined Oath of Druids and Tinker / Blightsteel Colossus deck with an alternate Voltaic Key / Time Vault combo.

4 Tropical Island
2 Tundra
1 Volcanic Island
3 Polluted Delta
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Underground Sea
2 Bayou
2 Windswept Heath
1 Savannah
1 Scrubland
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Wrath of God
4 Enlightened Tutor
1 Tinker
1 Time Walk
1 Personal Tutor
1 Fabricate
1 Show and Tell
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Burning Wish
4 Oath of Druids
1 Regrowth
1 Eureka
1 Living Wish
1 Worldly Tutor
2 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Sterling Grove
1 Time Vault
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Voltaic Key
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal

It was fun to play because you spend all your time trying to assemble the pieces of the puzzle given the current banning restrictions. When it's green, you're looking for blue/black tinker parts. When it's blue your looking for green/white oath parts. You can always assemble infinite turns with Voltaic Key and Time Vault, and you can occasionally Show and Tell or Eureka things out of your hand.

Wrath of God and Oblivion Ring work as occasional removal under various bannings. I kept thinking I wanted to add a couple Forbidden Orchards because occasionally that was an issue but I forgot to. I never ended up using Worldly Tutor even though it's technically an out in certain situations. The Burning Wish also seems powerful but I never used it.

If you like a puzzle piece style combo deck give it a try for this challenge. Hope someone enjoys it!