Cool Shandalar enemies deckpack! FREE!

[podbelski]

Hey everyone,

if you play Shandalar, but have a feeling many of those wondering enemies' decks are bad, like not themed enough, or variety of used cards is too limited, or they are annoying to battle against, here is the salvation: the result of 3 months of building and testing, a nice deckpack from myself. It is designed to substitute original Shandalar decks (Manalink versions 1.32 or 2.0).

Main goals of the deckpack
- decks are designed in a way their power gradually increases with the enemy level. E.g. all those level 1 mobs have pretty weak decks, in a sense they can't "crush". The cards are still strongly complement each other.
The higher enemy level is, the more powerful cards combinations constitute his deck. This makes low level creatures no match for you later in the game, but IMO it should be so.

- decks comply every enemy's theme as close as I can make with the selection of cards available. Often I replaced some cards with their weaker analogs, like one or two "Black knight" cards replaced with "Headless horseman" in Undead knight's deck. Usually it makes the deck a little bit weaker, but more interesting.

- decks are very "tight", so there are no bullshit/excessive cards that don't complement the main idea of the deck or can be spammed by AI and frustrate the player. Most of the decks have no more than 45 cards, so their 'work' is more stable. Also, it was quite tough to design some decks to force AI use everything properly. It has insane problems with some cards, like "Phantasmal Terrain" and some others really.

- decks are fun to battle against. No annoying stuff like 4 "Wrath of God" or 4 "Swords to plowshares" again and again, when it's boring to wait till AI exhausts it's vaults. Everything is balanced in a way that AI strategy is challenging enough, not frustrating and quite diversified.

- I tried to make use of as many available cards as it seemed reasonable. I think about 80% of cards are used in one or another enemy's deck (and at least half of unused cards are totally useless). Compared to original decks, I've found a use of many additional cards, it's always pleasant to feel the "fresh air" you know))
To name a few: Cuombajj Witches, Hasran Ogress, Banshee, Stone-Throwing Devils, Mold Demon, Raging River, Rukh Egg, Two Headed Giant of Foriys, Blood Moon, Hyperion Blacksmith, Thunder Spirit, Moat, Argivian Archaeologist, Witch Hunter, Ashnod's Transmogrant, Fountain of Youth, Weakstone, Moss Monster, Hidden Path, Gaea's Avenger, Force Spike, Reconstruction, Drowned, Serendib Djinn and many others.

- decks are made up from Manalink 1.32 cards.

- there is no Uber Fiend's aka Arzakon deck, I'm just not interested in this final battle.

Installation
- download the decks. Some decks were updated (Sep 2013), now it's v1.3
- extract the contents of the archive into your MTG folder, overwrite the original "DECKS" folder
- play

NOTE
this deckpack is better be used in conjunction with Tapani's Mod, or there will be 10 decks with inadequate power for their level (see my post about this below)

A bit history of myself
I had been playing Shandalar in 1997, loved it very much and consider myself quite an expert of the game, but for older card revisions. Recently I decided to play it again (nostalgia), but very soon realized it's no fun to battle against existing enemies. So I doubled my joy by designing enemy decks in addition to normal play process.

[podbelski]

so, anyone tried these? anyone still plays Shandalar at all?

[podbelski]

I will appreciate a single feedback post a lot

[Huggybaby]

I just realized you're in the wrong forum, maybe that's the trouble. I'll move this and see what happens.

Also, see viewtopic.php?f=57&t=1549.

[podbelski]

...

[podbelski]

Ok finally I've made Manalink 2.0 to work on my PC.

I looked through 2.0 decks - and it's already 100% clear that my decks are better/more fun, so I still advice to try them out as is.

Questions about 2.0, I've installed from here:
http://www.slightlymagic.net/wiki/Installation

it says there are more patches that will make the game "corrupted". Just don't understand wtf that means...

And I see more updates in the forum, like new card sets that replace older cards, right? How do you use them? Is there a way to use in Shandalar new cards like
Aisling Leprechaun
Akroma, Angel of Wrath
?

[podbelski]

Also, I can ship these decks in a format for single duels (launched via "magic.exe") if someone is interested

[podbelski]

1 deck for comparison, definitely most powerful green deck in my pack, used by Great Druid.

Original Manalink 2.0 deck:

22 Forest
1 Mox Emerald
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
2 Ghazban Ogre
4 Gaea's Liege
2 Singing Tree
4 Aspect of Wolf
4 Instill Energy
1 Fastbond
2 Living Lands
4 Stream of Life
4 Untamed Wilds
2 Verduran Enchantress
4 Erhnam Djinn
2 Citanul Druid


My version:

16 Forest
1 Arena (a good and devastating fit for this deck)

1 Mox Emerald
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
2 Untamed Wilds

1 Wall of Ice
3 Tracker
1 Killer Bees
2 Singing Tree
2 Cockatrice
3 Gaea's Liege

1 Regeneration
1 Instill Energy
1 Hidden Path
1 Desert Twister
1 Regrowth
2 Aspect of Wolf

[Aswan jaguar]

Huggybaby,I believe this was ok in Shandalar forum since it is a deckpack to substitute the original shandalar deckpack.

podbelski unfortunately no new cards can't be played in shandalar there is no development in shandalar.

[podbelski]

Thanks Aswan, could you pls elaborate in short what everyone is playing atm then? Duels via network? Or duels vs AI via magic.exe?

[stassy]

As for today we have severals versions running in parallel :

- The Constructed version is the one that replace old cards with new cards from latest official pack (lately it's new Phyrexia). You can play Duel, Gauntlet, Challenge mode or Tournament

- The Limited version which is a selection of the best card regardless of their age

- The Golden year version which is a selection of the best cards from the old set

[HornofAmmon]

Hey Podbelski - just wanted to let you know I'm trying out your new deck pack in Shandalar, as I just noticed your post here today. I restarted with a new game, and it seems tougher already for some of the enemies. Good work, I'll write more comments as I see more decks!

[podbelski]

Thx

There is a problem though... I made the deckpack playing with the "Tapani's mod", and he changed monsters' ranking a bit, compared to original Shandalar.

So, in case you use an unpatched Manalink 2.0 game, there will be 10 decks with inadequate power:

Undead Knight - the deck has "level 7" power in the deckpack, but in Manalink 2.0 it is "level 2"
Warlock - "level 2" atm, but "level 3" as per Manalink 2.0
Necromancer - "level 3" / "level 8"
Vamprire Lord - "level 8" / "level 5"
Nether Fiend - "level 5" / "level 7"
Merfolk Shaman - "level 5" / "level 2"
Sea Dragon - "level 3" / "level 5"
Conjurer - "level 2" / "level 3"
Paladin - "level 3" / "level 5"
Crusader - "level 5" / "level 3"

IMO Tapani's ranking is better, just based on the power of cards the decks have to be made of.

Atm I'm not sure what can I do about it... It's no fun to battle Undead Knight at the beginning of the game b/c he has 3rd most powerful black deck Also, Necromancer's deck is insanely weak for 8th level. And, it will be really sad to nerf Merfolk deck to a puny 2nd level, and it will be hard to make Paladin deck in a way that AI can play it according to "level 5" (AI sucks)

So, for now I strongly advice to play my deckpack in conjunction with Tapani's mod, I guess it is compatible with Manalink 2.0 game (of course use my decks, not his). The mod itself is small, it replaces like 3 files and adds a few more.

[podbelski]

Strange, download link in the first post were broken, now fixed...

[Aswan jaguar]

I don't know if you have checked but in Shandalar forum another person have done what you did by changing the decks in shandalar to make them more challenging and balanced,plus there are some other things in Shandalar you may like,new deck editor better cardart.