New quest decks

[Nordos]

Granted.
Though, I would keep the Doomwalkers as the only 'high cost' card, since it nukes the enemy especially when he plays a couple of spells each turn.
So, no bestow creatures and more low mana enchantments...?

Is the Leafcrown Dryad a problem, too? Its bestow cost is 4, which is IMO acceptable - as long as he casts the creature when he reaches 2 mana. If he only casts them for the bestow cost,t hey do have to go, I agree.
Otherwise... There are only a few enchantments with cost < 3 which act as a creature. Maybe including stuff like Rancor or Spider Umbra? The least expansive enchantment creature I see is the Brain Maggot.

On a Sidenote: How about weakening the first deck a bit and adding it as medium nonetheless? For example, no Gods for it.

[Sloth]

On a Sidenote: How about weakening the first deck a bit and adding it as medium nonetheless? For example, no Gods for it.

Yes that should work. I've included some more of the weaker Constellation cards instead:

Brother Voodoo 2 | Open

Code: Select all

1 Archetype of Finality
2 Argothian Enchantress
2 Baleful Eidolon
2 Boon Satyr
2 Brain Maggot
2 Courser of Kruphix
4 Doomwake Giant
1 Dreadbringer Lampads
2 Eidolon of Blossoms
4 Font of Fertility
12 Forest
1 Goldenhide Ox
3 Grim Guardian
1 Humbler of Mortals
2 Leafcrown Dryad
3 Oakheart Dryads
1 Pharika, God of Affliction
2 Spiteful Returned
12 Swamp
1 Thoughtrender Lamia

Granted.
Though, I would keep the Doomwalkers as the only 'high cost' card, since it nukes the enemy especially when he plays a couple of spells each turn.
So, no bestow creatures and more low mana enchantments...?

Is the Leafcrown Dryad a problem, too? Its bestow cost is 4, which is IMO acceptable - as long as he casts the creature when he reaches 2 mana. If he only casts them for the bestow cost,t hey do have to go, I agree.
Otherwise... There are only a few enchantments with cost < 3 which act as a creature. Maybe including stuff like Rancor or Spider Umbra? The least expansive enchantment creature I see is the Brain Maggot.

Sounds good. In my testing Grim Guardian and Courser of Kruphix were quite strong. Other cards to consider: Exploration, Seal of Doom and Seal of Primordium.

[Sloth]

Here is the hard version of the Constellation deck:

Brother Voodoo 3 | Open

4 Bayou
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Polluted Delta
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Forest
3 Swamp
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
2 Argothian Enchantress
4 Brain Maggot
4 Grim Guardian
3 Oakheart Dryads
4 Courser of Kruphix
4 Eidolon of Blossoms
4 Doomwake Giant
4 Font of Fertility
1 Pharika, God of Affliction
2 Enchantress's Presence
3 Exploration
1 Rancor
1 Seal of Doom
1 Seal of Primordium

[Nordos]

An experimental deck. Not yet quite fleshed out.
The idea is to use Mana Web to empty the manapool of the enemy. Blanket of Night and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth ensure, that each mana-producing land of the opponent can produce black mana (so, tapping them all), additional synergy with swampwalk creatures.
Once the combo of Blanket of Night, Mana Web and Nether Void is played, the human is nearly impotent (only being able to cast spells if he has mana producing creatures/artifacts/...)

Code: Select all

4 Blanket of Night
3 Crusading Knight
4 Enlightened Tutor
4 Judge's Familiar
1 Korlash, Heir to Blackblade
1 Liliana of the Dark Realms
4 Mana Web
4 Marsh Flats
2 Nether Void
10 Plains
3 Quag Vampires
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
2 Stalker Hag
6 Swamp
4 Tendrils of Corruption
4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Whispering Shade

EDIT: Seems that Nether Void breaks the deck, since it will always search for it and play it....

[friarsol]

Once the combo of Blanket of Night, Mana Web and Nether Void is played, the human is nearly impotent (only being able to cast spells if he has mana producing creatures/artifacts/...)

Your thesis is a fallacy. Mana Web is a trigger. I can tap all the lands I want in response to the trigger which would allow me to get all my mana into my mana pool at one go and cast whatever I'm able to. You'd certainly have to be paying attention to do so.

[Nordos]

I see. Totally forgot about that one. Oh well, nvm the deck then

[Sloth]

Here is a Spreading Seas deck with Choke. It can be a bit slow, but Choke + Propaganda can suddenly establish a soft lock:

Aqueduct 3 | Open

4 Seaside Citadel
4 Hinterland Harbor
4 Simic Guildgate
4 Temple of Mystery
4 Yavimaya Coast
1 Forest
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
4 Spreading Seas
4 Sea's Claim
4 Lingering Mirage
4 Choke
4 River Boa
4 Hammerhead Shark
1 Thada Adel, Acquisitor
4 Kruphix's Insight
4 Remand
4 Propaganda

[timmermac]

Oww. That is nasty.

[KrazyTheFox]

That reminded me of a deck I used to have (albeit not a very good one at the time), so I put a version of it back together. It seems to be very playable by the AI and results in a complete lockdown of all lands for opponents.

Leviathan | Open

[metadata]
Name=Leviathan
[Main]
3 Ancestral Recall|LEA
4 Choke|8ED
3 Elvish Piper|M10
3 Forest|AVR|1
2 Glacial Fortress|M13
2 Guard Gomazoa|ROE
4 Hinterland Harbor|ISD
3 Island|ZEN|2
2 Jace Beleren|M11
1 Mox Emerald|LEA
1 Mox Sapphire|LEB
4 Noble Hierarch|CFX
4 Oculus|MBS
2 Plains|RTR|3
2 Savannah|LEB
4 Seedborn Muse|10E
4 Stormtide Leviathan|M13
3 Thought Scour|DKA
2 Tropical Island|LEB
2 Tundra|LEB
4 Wall of Omens|ROE
1 Yavimaya Coast|10E

It seems like it would fit the role of a Very Hard version of the above Aqueduct deck (with a little tweaking). I've playtested it several times and it's pretty difficult to play against.

In this most recent match I was completely locked out of playing anything by turn 10:

[friarsol]

Doran 3 seems a bit shy on mana. Maybe it was just the match I played, but he got stalled on 2 and 3 mana respectively.

Green Arrow 3 has 3 Naya Panorama but no basic lands to actually fetch.

[Sloth]

That reminded me of a deck I used to have (albeit not a very good one at the time), so I put a version of it back together. It seems to be very playable by the AI and results in a complete lockdown of all lands for opponents.

Leviathan | Open

[metadata]
Name=Leviathan
[Main]
3 Ancestral Recall|LEA
4 Choke|8ED
3 Elvish Piper|M10
3 Forest|AVR|1
2 Glacial Fortress|M13
2 Guard Gomazoa|ROE
4 Hinterland Harbor|ISD
3 Island|ZEN|2
2 Jace Beleren|M11
1 Mox Emerald|LEA
1 Mox Sapphire|LEB
4 Noble Hierarch|CFX
4 Oculus|MBS
2 Plains|RTR|3
2 Savannah|LEB
4 Seedborn Muse|10E
4 Stormtide Leviathan|M13
3 Thought Scour|DKA
2 Tropical Island|LEB
2 Tundra|LEB
4 Wall of Omens|ROE
1 Yavimaya Coast|10E

It seems like it would fit the role of a Very Hard version of the above Aqueduct deck (with a little tweaking). I've playtested it several times and it's pretty difficult to play against.

All of the current AI decks are Vintage legal. There is no real reason for it, other than avoiding more people complaining about unfair opponents. But 3 copies of Ancestral Recall should be avoided.

The rest of the deck is rather inconsistent: Choke is harmful without Stormtide Leviathan since the AI has 7 islands in the deck (unless the player also has islands), Choke + Stormtide Leviathan locks out the AI itself without Seedborn Muse, Elvish Piper has only Stormtide Leviathan as a target and is useless otherwise, Oculus and Thought Scour are very weak and don't really help the game plan.

The deck really only messes around without Stormtide Leviathan. So a timely Thoughtseize, Counterspell or Doom Blade is enough to defeat the deck.

[Sloth]

Here is a mono red artifact deck:

Iron Man 3 | Open

1 Mountain
4 Great Furnace
2 Ancient Den
2 Seat of the Synod
1 Tree of Tales
1 Vault of Whispers
4 Darksteel Citadel
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Opal
1 Sol Ring
4 Memnite
1 Arcbound Worker
4 Frogmite
4 Myr Enforcer
2 Signal Pest
1 Arcbound Stinger
1 Hovermyr
1 Jhoira's Toolbox
1 Myr Retriever
1 Myr Sire
1 Steel Overseer
1 Etched Champion
1 Chrome Steed
1 Rusted Relic
1 Hammer of Purphoros
1 Moltensteel Dragon
1 Slash Panther
4 Whipflare
4 Galvanic Blast
2 Feedback Bolt
1 Blood Moon

[friarsol]

Hey Sloth,

Have you ever tried playing/building these Hard difficulty decks without off-color moxen? And leaving the full sets only for Expert level decks?

[Sloth]

Hey Sloth,

Have you ever tried playing/building these Hard difficulty decks without off-color moxen? And leaving the full sets only for Expert level decks?

I think less than 10% of the hard decks have a full set of Moxen. Like in this case i normally only use them when they fit the theme of the deck.

[Agetian]

I have a question regarding evaluating quest decks: I noticed that on the forum there is some sort of "automated testing" or "automated evaluation" referenced for decks that assigns the deck its supposed difficulty level (1 - 4). Can you please tell me what the procedure is for that purpose? I'd like to take a whack at modifying and adding some quest decks if that works out. Thanks in advance.

- Agetian