Challenge 4-5 : ABC's

[HornofAmmon]

"M" is for Mana. Super easy deck, what with the Moxes, Mishra's Workshops, and Metalworkers providing all the mana needed for my artifacts to stomp over the enemies.

;M Only
;
;Underdogs
;no.spam@plea.se
;22/02/2012
;1
;4th Edition
;

.377 2 Maze of Ith
.510 4 Mishra's Workshop
.508 4 Mishra's Factory
.164 8 Mountain
.1023 4 Mutavault
.1230 4 Masticore
.466 4 Memnite
.818 4 Metalworker
.527 4 Mimic Vat
.166 1 Mox Jet
.165 1 Mox Emerald
.167 1 Mox Pearl
.1805 1 Mox Opal
.169 1 Mox Sapphire
.168 1 Mox Ruby
.586 4 Myr Battlesphere
.1548 4 Myr Enforcer
.606 4 Myr Galvanizer
.1279 2 Moonglove Extract
.490 2 Mortarpod*

[HornofAmmon]

"P" is for Phyrexia. This deck relied on its Phyrexian Processors to stomp over the opponents with 10/10 minions.

;P Only
;
;User
;User E-Mail
;12/03/2012
;1
;4th Edition
;

.189 4 Plateau
.188 21 Plains
.10910 3 Pierce Strider
.1308 2 Platinum Angel
.968 2 Pacifism
.1267 4 Paladin en-Vec
.1560 4 Path to Exile
.11067 4 Porcelain Legionnaire
.351 4 Preacher
.3797 4 Phyrexian Processor
.9256 2 Plumeveil
.10901 3 Peace Strider
.3578 3 Price of Progress



"R" is for Rreally?" As in, I really beat it with this crappy manabase? Or it could stand for "race", since most of the games had life total races. Either way, Rolling Earthquake is awesome, and Reanimate helped recover after them. Still can't believe I won with this.

;R Only
;
;User
;User E-Mail
;13/03/2012
;1
;4th Edition
;

.1732 4 Rakdos Carnarium
.10331 4 Raging Ravine
.10752 4 Razorverge Thicket
.3284 4 Reflecting Pool
.4354 4 Rishadan Port
.11468 4 Rootbound Crag
.1222 2 Ravenous Baloth
.3990 2 Rancor
.202 1 Regrowth
.9676 2 Rhox Charger
.10160 2 Rampaging Baloths
.8457 2 Radha, Heir to Keld
.1367 3 Rip-Clan Crasher
.4870 1 Rith, the Awakener
.7893 1 Rumbling Slum
.10922 2 Red Sun's Zenith
.206 2 Roc of Kher Ridges
.1372 3 Rockslide Elemental
.12014 3 Rolling Earthquake
.3288 1 Rolling Thunder
.3280 2 Reanimate
.9047 1 Reveillark
.1815 2 Rainbow Vale
.1256 2 River Boa
.11311 1 Reckless Waif
.209 1 Royal Assassin

"S" is for "Swords", or "Stupid easy", because this was too easy with this Bant Stoneblade deck.

.216 4 Scrubland
.212 4 Savannah
.10763 4 Seachrome Coast
.1205 4 Seaside Citadel
.1216 1 Seat of the Synod
.10176 3 Sejiri Refuge
.11484 4 Sunpetal Grove
.10776 1 Steel Hellkite
.9709 2 Steward of Valeron
.1224 1 Stoic Angel
.221 1 Serra Angel
.9695 3 Sigiled Paladin
.1238 1 Silver Knight
.1558 1 Soul Warden
.1453 2 Spectral Procession
.10357 4 Stoneforge Mystic
.11594 2 Sun Titan
.11101 2 Suture Priest
.240 4 Swords to Plowshares
.8893 3 Sower of Temptation
.10171 1 Scute Mob
.12104 1 Scavenging Ooze
.11681 1 Skinshifter
.10345 1 Sejiri Steppe
.10943 1 Sword of Feast and Famine
.6746 1 Sword of Fire and Ice
.6747 1 Sword of Light and Shadow
.11102 1 Sword of War and Peace
.230 1 Sol Ring

"T" is for "tough", as in it was surprisingly tough to win with this Goyf-infested deck. I guess Tarmogoyfs just aren't that good without fetchlands and lots of cantrips.


.252 4 Tropical Island
.254 4 Tundra
.241 4 Taiga
.1499 4 Temple Garden
.819 2 Tolaria
.4020 4 Treetop Village
.1217 4 Tree of Tales
.8667 4 Tarmogoyf
.10202 3 Terra Stomper
.10947 1 Thopter Assembly
.10948 2 Thrun, the Last Troll
.11359 2 Travel Preparations
.6596 4 Troll Ascetic
.1483 1 Tolsimir Wolfblood
.4935 2 Treva, the Renewer
.8083 2 Trygon Predator
.7758 3 Telling Time
.249 1 Time Walk
.1341 4 Treachery
.1347 2 Thornscape Apprentice
.1591 2 Tribal Flames
.11109 1 Triumph of the Hordes


That's all I got - I beat A, B, C, D, G, I, K, M, P, R, S, and T for this challenge. I think the other possible winnables are F and H, but they have proven really hard so far. The rest of the letters simply don't have enough lands starting with them, so they look to be impossible. Someone prove me wrong ...

[HornofAmmon]

Beat it with "F" actually! "F" is for "Force", because I really had to force this janky four-color deck to work. Fauna Shaman and Flametongue Kavu were MVP's, despite the terrible mana. On to "H", which I do think is nearly impossible...

;F Only
;
;User
;User E-Mail
;14/03/2012
;1
;4th Edition
;

.5923 4 Forgotten Cave
.8175 2 Flagstones of Trokair
.3938 4 Forbidding Watchtower
.2007 1 Fiery Justice
.9414 3 Figure of Destiny
.11535 2 Fauna Shaman
.1293 2 Fyndhorn Elves
.84 2 Fireball
.5008 3 Flametongue Kavu
.7614 3 Faith's Fetters
.10056 1 Felidar Sovereign
.11206 1 Fiend Hunter
.1497 2 Final Judgment
.91 11 Forest
.3187 1 Flickering Ward
.3935 3 Faerie Conclave
.2424 2 Frost Marsh
.4772 1 Fact or Fiction
.3716 2 Fog Bank
.11537 2 Frost Titan
.11205 2 Festerhide Boar
.1034 3 Fertile Ground
.4067 1 False Prophet
.89 1 Force of Nature
.10848 1 Fangren Marauder

[mox]

My deck for ABC's (it won on the 2nd try):

.239 16 Swamp
.1204 4 Savage Lands
.9257 4 Shimmering Grotto
.7376 1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
.7967 4 Stinkweed Imp
.3437 3 Stronghold Assassin
.10465 3 Sign in Blood
.6011 3 Stitch Together
.1821 3 Soul Exchange
.8669 2 Smallpox
.11677 2 Sheoldred, Whispering One
.9015 2 Shimian Specter
.8134 1 Skeletal Vampire
.7957 4 Shambling Shell
.2346 4 Shield Sphere
.6970 3 Sword of Fire and Ice
.230 1 Sol Ring

Strategy is, once you get a Stitch Together or Soul Exchange, to repeatedly dredge Stinkweed Imp and/or Shambling Shell until you get Sheoldred in the graveyard and can (re)turn it to the battlefield. Once Sheoldred is in play, you have almost won the match. Shield Sphere and Stronghold Assassin are to help to survive until then. All the other cards are to provide alternate ways to win, and the Swords are a good fit as they do not suffer from the repeated bouncing of the dredgers.

Honestly, a couple of times I took benefit from a bug in Shimian Specter: sometimes it lets you exile ALL the cards from opponent's library.

[wicked]

So I wanted to share this deck as soon as I saw Swans of Bryn Argoll and Seismic Assault were both in 'S' and I noticed that there wasn't a Seismic Swans deck list posted under this challenge yet. Plus the mana-base in S is excellent for a Red/White/Blue deck.

;Chal 4-5 - SeismicSwans
;White/Blue/Red
;User
;User E-Mail
;20/01/2014
;1
;4th Edition
;

.1142 4 Seismic Assault
.9689 4 Swans of Bryn Argoll
.1708 4 Sacred Foundry
.4590 4 Sandstone Needle
.10654 4 Scalding Tarn
.11356 4 Seachrome Coast
.5432 4 Shivan Reef
.5701 4 Skycloud Expanse
.1712 4 Steam Vents
.12094 4 Sulfur Falls
.13561 4 Steam Augury
.4598 4 Saprazzan Skerry
.12843 4 Supreme Verdict
.1216 4 Seat of the Synod
.1710 4 Stomping Ground

Basically for anyone that doesn't know how it works, Swans of Bryn Argoll turns damage done to it into drawn cards, so you direct your own lands from Seismic Assault at it to net you one card each time. Once you have 10 lands in hand, you can dome the opponent for 20 with the Seismic Assault. If you decide to tinker with it, I'd suggest keeping the land count above 40-44ish to make sure you can draw 2 lands at least one out of every two Seismic Assault triggers.

Of course like any combo deck it's vulnerable to cards like Force of Will and Daze (or any counters for that matter, but the AI doesn't seem interested in countering the Seismic Assault, so you mostly need to worry about getting the Swans in play. Though not many of the gauntlet decks run counters. The only other major weakness is Path to Exile or Swords to Plowshares, so I guess you just need to run lucky against those decks, or cast the combo when the AI is tapped out. The deck is powerful if you can draw well and get a bit lucky with the AI decks, though this can be said of any challenge. Unfortunately there aren't any cascade spells in 'S' except Stormcaller's Boon which isn't in the card pool and Shardless Agent, which of course only cascades to CMC 1 and 2. I'm sure there's a way to make it a bit more consistent, though I was able to do it in only a few tries. Good Luck!

[Emphyrio]

Beat it easily with HornofAmon S swords deck after replacing the Sowers of Temptation which I couldn't use with 2 Serra angel and 1 Spectral Procession.

Also beat it with P as Pure Monowhite Control, but took many tries as some decks are painfu for control :

24 Plains
4 Porphyry Nodes
4 Pacifism
4 Phyrexian Rebirth
3 Planar Cleansing
4 Presence of the Wise
4 Path to Exile
3 Pitfall Trap
2 Platinum Angel
4 Phyrexian Processor
4 Pearl Medallion


I tried L with a Living Death deck but failed so far. It's definitely possible but would require a lot of luck. Especially with some of the cards being bugged (in my version), and with nothing to remove opponent's creature card from his graveyard and not much good choices to gain life.

4 Llanowar Wastes
4 Llanowar Reborn
1 Library of Alexandria
4 Lavaclaw Reaches
2 Lotus Vale
4 Leechridden Swamp
4 Lord of the Void
4 Laquatus's Champion
4 Living Death
2 Living End (should be replaced, definitely too slow, but Liliana Vess as tutor instead is a bit too expensive/slow as well, and Lim-Dûl's Vault requires blue mana which is uneasy to fit in - as you want to use the lotus for living death usually).
4 Llanowar Mentor
4 Llanowar Elves
3 Leaf Gilder
4 Lord of Extinction
4 Lotleth Troll
1 Lotus Petal
4 Lotus Bloom
3 Lotus Blossom

The AI uses my Llanowar Reborn to buff his creatures, not sure if it has been fixed in recent patches. Also there is some weird bug where you can't use Library of Alexandria with 7 cards in hand, you don't have to discard at end of turn with 8 cards in hand and occasionally you can't cast Living Death despite having the mana for it. I think Lotus Bloom is the culprit but not sure.

[MarkyMark]

I thought this was a fun challenge, so I figured why not continue the alphabet. I went with E for a challenge, and I got through it using this deck:

.7202 4 Eiganjo Castle
.10917 4 Eldrazi Temple
.960 4 Elfhame Palace
.10535 4 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
.13285 4 Encroaching Wastes
.10759 4 Everflowing Chalice
.1614 4 Exotic Orchard
.13689 1 Eidolon of Countless Battles
.11595 2 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
.11244 1 Elspeth Tirel
.9955 4 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
.13426 2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
.10534 2 Emeria Angel
.7046 1 Engineered Explosives
.1525 4 Enlightened Tutor
.965 4 Ensnaring Bridge
.6137 4 Exalted Angel
.2279 3 Exile
.414 2 Elephant Graveyard
.11598 1 Exclusion Ritual
.10920 1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

This deck is an Ensnaring Bridge deck that uses Enlightened Tutor to find Ensnaring bridge. From there it tries to control the board using tokens generated by the various Elspeths to win the game. Emrakul is in there to make it possible to win against the mill deck and the Mana Flare deck. I would reccomend completing the Archenemy and '95 challenge first, because the Wall of Swords and Archenemy schemes help a lot!

[MarkyMark]

Just beat it with the 'H' deck. Although I would not recommend using this one without all the buffs (Archenemy, '95 and Pit Scorpion). The goal is to get out an early Huntmaster of the Fells and let him carry you to victory, or ramp up to Hornet Queen and Hellvault to out control your opponent:

.10773 4 Halimar Depths
.1788 4 Havenwood Battleground
.4488 3 Hickory Woodlot
.8385 4 Highland Weald
.11985 4 Hinterland Harbor
.8945 4 Horizon Canopy
.10776 4 Harabaz Druid
.1243 4 Harmonize
.13299 1 Haunted Plate Mail
.4138 4 Heart Warden
.12206 3 Helvault
.11746 3 Hornet Queen
.12213 4 Huntmaster of the Fells
.6180 2 Hystrodon
.1713 4 Hallowed Fountain
.4485 4 Heart of Ramos
.11131 3 Hornet Sting
.2297 1 Helm of Obedience

[MarkyMark]

The I is for Isochron Scepter and Inferno Titan. This deck actually works quite well, and might be able to win even without unlocking Archenemy and '95:

.2722 4 Impulse
.1254 4 Incinerate
.11134 4 Inferno Titan
.10570 4 Into the Roil
.8076 1 Invoke the Firemind
.1212 4 Iron Myr
.6690 4 Isochron Scepter
.3177 3 Intuition
.12753 4 Izzet Charm
.1550 4 Izzet Signet
.12754 4 Izzet Guildgate
.1729 4 Izzet Boilerworks
.126 16 Island

[MarkyMark]

And the O deck is for Orzhov, which plays like a midrange remove your creatures and smash with fatties deck:

.1551 4 Orzhov Basilica
.13025 4 Orzhov Guildgate
.1707 4 Overgrown Tomb
.8101 4 Orzhova, the Church of Deals
.10623 2 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
.1721 4 Orzhov Signet
.13026 4 Orzhov Keyrune
.13024 4 Orzhov Charm
.13775 3 Ornitharch
.13630 4 Ophiomancer
.13019 3 Obzedat, Ghost Council
.9230 4 Oblivion Ring
.7707 2 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
.13629 4 Opal Palace
.447 4 Oubliette
.8099 4 Orzhov Guildmage
.7329 2 Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers

[MarkyMark]

More letters! Don't try these without the Pit Scorpion and Archenemy upgrades, though.

U: This one is all about Umezawa's Jitte and evasive creatures to put it on.

.258 4 Underground Sea
.833 3 Urborg
.8870 3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
.12860 4 Ultimate Price
.11070 1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
.7587 4 Umezawa's Jitte
.6306 4 Undead Gladiator
.10854 4 Urge to Feed
.2140 4 Underground River
.4078 4 Unearth
.8717 1 Urza's Factory
.959 4 Urborg Volcano
.5167 4 Urborg Drake
.12861 4 Underworld Connections
.2801 2 Undiscovered Paradise
.13589 2 Unknown Shores
.10698 4 Umara Raptor
.13588 4 Underworld Cerberus

V: This one was a ton of fun, actually. Vraska and Venser are the main combo, allowing you to blow up a nonland permanent every turn until Venser ultimates and allows you to blow up everything.

.10703 4 Vampire Nighthawk
.1519 1 Vampiric Tutor
.1215 4 Vault of Whispers
.12116 4 Victim of Night
.1302 4 Vindicate
.1226 2 Visara the Dreadful
.9301 4 Vivid Marsh
.12870 4 Vraska the Unseen
.3452 1 Volrath's Stronghold
.9300 4 Vivid Grove
.9302 4 Vivid Meadow
.9299 4 Vivid Creek
.11402 2 Venser, the Sojourner
.13093 4 Verdant Haven
.1186 2 Vine Trellis
.13594 4 Voyaging Satyr
.266 4 Volcanic Island
.11406 2 Volition Reins
.1611 2 Viridian Shaman


W: This one is all about Wrathing (Wrath of God and Winds of Rath) and using Wurmcoil Engine to clean up.

.9304 4 Wanderwine Hub
.1709 4 Watery Grave
.9312 4 Windbrisk Heights
.9725 4 Wooded Bastion
.12127 4 Woodland Cemetery
.3329 4 Wasteland
.4656 2 Wave of Reckoning
.6316 4 Weathered Wayfarer
.6320 4 Whipcorder
.6466 4 Windborn Muse
.290 4 Wrath of God
.11413 4 Wurmcoil Engine
.3962 4 Worn Powerstone
.11078 4 Wall of Omens
.5757 4 Words of Wisdom
.1192 2 Worship

I think that just leaves J, N, Q, X, Y and Z. J and N might be possible after Khans (additional colored lands), but the rest need a ton of support before they are viable.