Shandalar Strategies

[Salbei]

yeah but you have to get the cards first . and this is where the elemental is handy.

[klye]

I just don't see how he can create a card cycle. Once he uses the Effret power to steal a random card, he loses the Effret. So, how does he use it again later in the game?

[klye]

On a different note... the Old man from the Sea card is different in Shandalar than in Duel. In Shandalar, the card effects creatures with less power than the Old Man. In Duel, the card effects creatures with less or equal to power. What gives? Did I do something wrong installing this game?

[aww1979]

I just don't see how he can create a card cycle. Once he uses the Effret power to steal a random card, he loses the Effret. So, how does he use it again later in the game?

Oh, ok I see what you're asking. He doesn't use it more than once in a game, but you use the timetwisters and time walks to use all your efreets in the deck before the AI can respond with a turn.

On a different note... the Old man from the Sea card is different in Shandalar than in Duel. In Shandalar, the card effects creatures with less power than the Old Man. In Duel, the card effects creatures with less or equal to power. What gives? Did I do something wrong installing this game?

You did nothing wrong. Microprose effed up in Shandalar; the original card behaves as in Duel.

[klye]

Is it fixable? Does anyone other than me care ?

[klye]

Oh, and I guess a deck with

4 Tempest Efreet
4 Animate Dead

Could steal up to 8 cards in a game. If you throw in 2 Timetwisters you could in theory steal the opponents entire deck during a single duel. But, you would need a way to get him to discard the efreets when he draws them... to use the animate daed on them again .

Hmmm... it'd be fun to construct a lockdown deck that would give you a way to steal all his cards while living long enough to do it. Any takers with shadalar cards only? Oh, and as few unique cards as possible. After all, if you already have alot of restricted cards... why are you stealing cards in the first place?

[aww1979]

Is it fixable? Does anyone other than me care ?

I don't think the community has figured out how to mod Shandalar yet, so that isn't fixable. It could probably be fixed in Duel mode, but there isn't any point to fixing it just for Duel mode.

For the ante strategy in Shandalar, usually what I'd do is use a couple Bronze Tablets for the Moxes and other permanents, Demonic Attorney (hoping to get AI to ante something nice), and Tempest Efreet to try and get spells, and use Timetwister, Time Walk, to do that as often as possible. It sounds really impressive, but you're still lucky to walk away with even one restricted card in a match, since so much of the deck is devoted to ante that you have less control, less kill conditions, etc, plus the mana base is brutal when Tempest Efreet is 1RRR. (though Black Lotus is great for that) Sometimes I'll use Glasses of Urza (yes seriously!) so that I know if it's worth using my Efreet or if AI's hand is full of crap, or Natural Selection, (again, seriously!) put anything nice on top, and Demonic Attorney if so. Again, this makes the mana base really ugly, and I don't do all of this stuff in the same deck, but I'll do at least one of those strategies, whichever one my collection lets me get out most reliably.

Jeweled Bird is another great card in Shandalar. It protects your irreplacable stuff if it gets in the ante, plus it is basically a one mana cantrip you can use to thin your deck regardless of its colour. Even if your ante card is worthless, this is a good play, and jeweled birds are pretty easy to get if you lose one. (dirt cheap at nomad's bazaar, for instance, something like 100-200 gold each)

A couple other strategies that might work, but I've never tried, involve the Animate Dead klye mentioned, as well as stuff like Pandora's Box.

A combo that isn't possible in Shandalar (or even Duel, yet) but works in real life, is Dance of Many with Tempest Efreet. Dance of Many makes a token Tempest Efreet, so when you activate the token, you aren't giving away Dance of Many, you're giving away... a token. (i.e. nothing, since a token disappears when it leaves play) That new card, Rite of Replication, could do the same thing, but Dance/Tempest was a classic combo way back in the day.

[Obiershee]

I usually play a red/black tap destroy deck. I can run most difficulties with this deck but sometimes I will be forced into a stalemate with the AI.

[FallenOne]

Using Tempest Efreet & Time Elemental could be a bug. Maybe when you activate the Tempest Efreet and then Time Elemental, you get to keep both the Efreet and the CPUs random card. This could be similar to the Jeweled Bird & Hurkyl's Recall bug that allows you to keep the JB and gets back all of your ante card(s).

Anyway, in my version of DotP, the Tempest Efreet doesn't work properly. Sometimes I will get a random card and get to keep the Efreet. Other times I will get 99 copies of the random card and other times I will get 99 copies of several cards in the CPUs deck. Once you go over 500 cards, this sometimes causes the game to crash. I don't use the Efreet regularly once I hit 100+ cards.

Another issue I found in my version with Demonic Attorney is that you will only get restricted/dungeon cards that are in the first 5 anted cards. So if you the CPU antes a Mox Sapphire as their 6th ante card (multiple Demonic Attorneys, Rebirth and Timetwister), you will not get the card.

Does anyone know of a way to add King Suleiman to their Shandalar deck? Many times when you enter a Lair, you will get a bonus King Suleiman to start in play on your side. Is their a way to add him to your collection permanently?

[FallenOne]

Oh, and I guess a deck with

4 Tempest Efreet
4 Animate Dead

Could steal up to 8 cards in a game. If you throw in 2 Timetwisters you could in theory steal the opponents entire deck during a single duel. But, you would need a way to get him to discard the efreets when he draws them... to use the animate daed on them again .

Hmmm... it'd be fun to construct a lockdown deck that would give you a way to steal all his cards while living long enough to do it. Any takers with shadalar cards only? Oh, and as few unique cards as possible. After all, if you already have alot of restricted cards... why are you stealing cards in the first place?

Maybe a deck with Contract from Below, Dark Ritual, Sinkhole, Strip Mine, Hypnotic Specters, Disrupting Scepter, Glasses of Urza, your Tempest Efreets & Animate Deads, 2 Timetwisters. Maybe Drain Life and 2 Jeweled Birds.

[aww1979]

@FallenOne:

You can get King Suleiman in your collection, but it's pretty rare. I think the only way is to get him as a 'random card find' in the wilderness. He (like Juzam and a few others) aren't available from Nomad Bazaar. The only AI deck I can think of that has one to steal is the white castle boss.

[FallenOne]

Ok, I'll keep looking for King Suleiman in the random White Lairs.

So far, I've gotten the following in different games in the various Lairs - Diamond Valley, Elephant Graveyard, Juzam Djinn, Mijae Djinn, Serendib Djinn, and Ydwen Efreet.

[aww1979]

Oh, I think you can also get him as part of the loot when you get a Djinn or Efreet to fight in one of those wilderness things, and there are 2-3 rare/unique cards as a reward; one could theoretically be the King Suleiman, I think.

[Professor]

These are a lot of cool new deck ideas for Shandalar. It feels funny to say "new" ideas for a game I've been playing since near it's inception!

I never considered a deck of all Black Vises (and they are cheap and plentiful), never knew about the Time Vault exploit, never really splashed colors for power cards, never took advantage of stealing cards from opponents with the efreet, Bronze Statue, or Demonic Attorney, etc.

It's always been pretty much pure speed in all colors ASAP. My white decks are full of Knights, Thunder Spirits, M Pegasus, and Crusades, which I'll swap out for color hosers when I know what I'm up against.
Blue has Flying Men, S Efreets, Z Falcons, Unstable Mutations, pwoer cards, and only Unsummons to clear the way. Black is Knights, Hippies, Contracts, Rituals, Paralyzes as my only removal. Green is Ghazban Ogres, Sprites, Elvish Archers, Giant Growths, and a Berserk or two. Winter Blast, if I haven't won in 5 or 6 turns. Even my red is speed, with Goblin Balloon Brigades, Ironclaw Orcs, Gargoyles, Kird Apes, a few Giant Strenghts/Blood Lusts, Bolts, and maybe 1 Fireball to finish with on occasion. One exception is when I make my red mage a Channel deck. It's pretty unfair to play Channel when your life total start out 10 or 20 higher than your opponent, and you get a lot of consistency playing 30 or 35 card decks.

If it's not obvious, I'll say that I rotate among starting colors and difficulty levels, and virtually always stick to my mage's color, if for no other reason, for the variety. I don't ever reload a game to undo something negative. The game's easy enough - geez!

I usually collect an entirely separate series of white cards along the way for Arzakon, with my mage's color as the secondary color, if at all.
I only hit the dungeons that might add a useful Mox or power card to my playdecks, and no more than that.
I try to minimize my duels as a secondary challenge, where I rate a game based on fewest duels needed to win. Sometimes I can keep it in the teens!

Anyway, glad I found this site - it's fun to play with different cards. (Even if I occasionally draft a card number 1 only to discover it's abilities are locked out!)
Thanks, everybody!

[FallenOne]

@FallenOne:

You can get King Suleiman in your collection, but it's pretty rare. I think the only way is to get him as a 'random card find' in the wilderness. He (like Juzam and a few others) aren't available from Nomad Bazaar. The only AI deck I can think of that has one to steal is the white castle boss.

I finally got King Suleiman as a random card in a white random Lair. Now I just need to find Ifh Biff Efreet in one of the green random Lairs and I think I've found all of the unique cards in Shandalar.