[Archive] Challenge Set 1

[Zeek]

Yeah, I finally worked my way through it. I started attempting it with different decks and kept running into speed/consistency problems, and eventually made a dedicated hoser deck since a lot of the opponents can be shut down by just one card.

What I started with was a Tooth and Nail type deck, backed by Moat and its creature counterpart, Magus of the Moat. The goal was to get Platinum Angel out, since there are very few answers to it in the first challenge. I started with Progenitus as a finisher, but came to realize that mister "protection from everything" couldn't fly over the Moat. So rather quickly, he was swapped out for Iridescent Angel, who is just as hard to block (no deck contains a flying artifact creature, although the faeries can steal your Platinum Angel to block with).

But the Tooths were too slow, and once I came to realize I was trying to use a 9 mana sorcery to bring out 7 mana angels, I changed them out for Oath of Druids, which is better. But then the Birds of Paradise had to go because I was oathing them into play, along with all the Urzatron mess. After revamping the mana base and acceleration spells, I sped the deck up. I was also able to splash blue for Tinker and threw some Lightning Greaves for that added protection.

Now with the Oath working, I did some more tweaking. The last big change was to remove Magus of the Moat, since I realized I was consistent enough to rely on Platinums instead and the Magus was a bad Oath pull in certain matchups. I removed them and instead put in two Eternal Witnesses, a Timetwister to help curb a decking problem, and a Demonic Tutor to help speed things up.

So that leaves me with the final product, which eventually cleared the first challenge.

4x Platinum Angel
1x Iridescent Angel
2x Eternal Witness

4x Moat
4x Oath of Druids
1x Tinker
1x Time Walk
1x Timetwister
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Demonic Tutor
2x Naturalize
2x Lightning Greaves

4x Land Grant
4x Fertile Ground
5x Moxes
1x Black Lotus
1x Sol Ring

4x Savannah
4x Temple Garden
4x Tropical Island
4x Tundra
1x Bayou
4x Forbidden Orchard


Now for some briefings of the matchup!

Round 1- Kobolds
Not too much of a problem since they aren't paticularly powerful. Moat shuts them down, although the Lighting Bolts can finish you off if you've taken too much damage already. Platinum Angel usually wins, but again, they can be double bolted, but with a Greaves equipped is a guarenteed win. No flyers to block with, so yeah.

Round 2- Zombies
This deck is FAST due to the +2/+1 of the Warchief and the lesser cost, combined with Dark Rituals. But with no flying or targetted removal whatsoever, Moat/Platinum alone is game. Heck, you don't even need a finisher because they'll likely Graveborn Muse themselves to death.

Round 3- Faeries
This is troublesome. Moat is worthless here, and a sole Platinum is susceptable to Control Magic. There's also a stray counter or two. Thankfully, they will kill themsevles with Bitterblossom, and if a Platinum resolves and gets Greaves, it's the same as above. Iridescent can help with finishing, but if a Platinum is stolen, it can be blocked and killed.

Round 4- Kithkin (I may start screwing up order around here somewhere)
Possible flyers in Spectral Procession, Cloudgoat Ranger, and a fully evolved Figure of Destiny, so Moat alone is not a lock, and Platinums can be blocked. An early Moat is still a safe bet, and Platinum will make you unkillable until Iridescent finishes.

Round 5- Merfolk
Again with the counterspells, but heavier this time and backed by "comes into play, draw a card" Merfolk. But no flyers/other damage or permanent targetting, so a resolved Moat/Platinum is game. Be warned, however, that while Moat is an eventual win, too many counterspells can draw out the game long enough to force a crash.

Round 6- Relentless Rats
Same as the zombies, fast with Rituals, but so straightforward a single Moat/Platinum wins and has no disruption isses at all.

Round 7- Elves
Other than Worship (that and the faeries' Control Magic are the reasons for the Naturalize), it's the same as the zombies/rats. Watch out for crashes, however, because elves can produce TONS of mana, tons more elves, then use Collective Unconscious.

Round 8- Goblins
These are actually pretty meh, despite the potential. The AI fails to play most of them pre-combat despite the Chieftan giving free haste. Again with the lack of flyers, but be cautious that the Seige-Gang Commander can fling goblins past the Moat and even kill un-Greaves'd Platinums.

Round 9- Solders
Starting with a 3/3 and three 2/2's means you must may find yourself mulliganing aggressively. With Honor of the Pure ramping up the starting lineup's power from 7 to 13, you likely will not last through two combat phases. However, if you do get that turn 1 Oath that pulls a Platinum or turn 2 Tinker/Moat, the game is yours.

Round 10- Slivers
With 7 starting power you're dead in 3 hits, although the deck does not kill in 2 swings as much as the Soldiers tend to. The only real issue now is that Winged Sliver can render Moat useless, but if you're lucky enough not to see one early, it can buy some time. I'm not completely sure if there's an answer to Platinum, but I don't think there is. And actually, there may be an issue with colorless flying Slivers being able to block Iridescent, but hopefully you can Oath out angels before that's a problem.

[jatill]

Nice read. Good luck on the future challenges.

[aww1979]

I've seen all those decks except the Sliver one, so I must've gotten to the second last one so far. I thought elves was after goblins/soldiers though.

Interestingly, I made a fairly similar deck on one of my attempts, but I quickly abandoned it because if you don't get an Oath, you're dead.

[reng0r0]

I ended up using a Bant control build with Swords to Plowshares, and Path to Exile for removal. Moat, Propaganda, Meekstone to control all those creatures. Finally drop Stoic Angel with a bunch of exalted creatures on the table for the kill.

There was more than one occasion where I drew a Moat to save my life. Couldn't have been more excited when I finished. The next challenge seems easier at first glance.

[somacat]

I went a similar route to everyone else, sporting a slow as molasses white control deck, with playsets of Path and Swords for those early lords, Moat and Wrath to halt attacks (and a singleton CoP: Red to avoid being Siege-Ganged out), and Iridescent Angel as my finisher.

The one thing I had that was unique was the Isochron Scepter / Holy Day (and Fog) Combo. As a side effect, it also got around the issue of crashes vs the elf deck, since a post-Wrath Scepter + Path means they will never build up the way-too-large army.

Congrats to everyone who has finished the first challenge; it's such a buzz to complete these, especially if you have enough failed attempts for it to start getting frustrating (pretty much inevitable).

As jatill has mentioned, the second challenge is probably easier than the first - a good deck should get you through, although the last boss can be annoying. From there it starts getting tougher, but keep perservering, as they can all be beaten, and the unlocked cards get cooler and cooler (and there's more of them!).

Good luck everyone!

[Snacko]

Personally I went completely alternative route than everyone posted here before. I went for a deck that can kill faster than you can be killed. I used Hulk Flash combo for that, which secured me a turn 1-3 wins via Disciple of the Vault dealing ~40 damage from Ornithopter and Phyrexian Walker sacrificed to Arcbound Ravager.
The deck fares really well for other challenges too as you can outpace the AI and kill it even if it has some life advantage.

[Juzam Djinn]

I completed the first challenge with this deck:

;- T1 Challenge Oath
;
;Frank
;no.spam@plea.se
;06/08/2009
;1
;4th Edition
;

.1902 4 Oath of Druids
.726 4 Moat
.1314 4 Magus of the Moat
.1308 4 Platinum Angel
.1291 1 Iridescent Angel
.1779 2 Lightning Greaves
.167 1 Mox Pearl
.168 1 Mox Ruby
.165 1 Mox Emerald
.166 1 Mox Jet
.169 1 Mox Sapphire
.240 2 Swords to Plowshares
.17 1 Black Lotus
.1096 3 Naturalize
.10 1 Balance
.1501 1 Zuran Orb
.1 1 Ancestral Recall
.249 1 Time Walk
.250 1 Timetwister
.588 4 Path to Exile
.212 4 Savannah
.1473 4 Windswept Heath
.252 4 Tropical Island
.806 3 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
.528 1 Strip Mine
.1876 3 Reflecting Pool
.1893 2 Forbidden Orchard
.91 2 Forest

The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale saved my ass many times, I played it first turn against the soldier deck and the sliver deck (I started in both matches).

[scherbchen]

initially I just wanted to abuse the power of Isochrone Sceptre, thinking that a Holy Day or Swords to Plowshares or Lightning Helix would just get me through. alas, sometimes the AI gets a start that can not be handled by a sceptre that is online on turn 1.

a Flash deck will probably prevail most of the time if you play best of three. it just allows for the most abusive cards and explosive openings.

4 Elvish Spirit Guide
3 Arcbound Ravager
4 Disciple of the Vault
4 Ornithopter
4 Phyrexian Walker
4 Protean Hulk

1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Onyx
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Diamond
1 Mox Pearl

4 Summoner's Pact
1 Imperial Seal
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Brainstorm
1 Cunning Wish
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Flash
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Ponder
1 Careful Study
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Time Walk
1 Time Twister
2 Holy Day

3 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
3 Tundra
2 Tropical Island

[aww1979]

Best of three? All my games are best of one :p But that's my default gauntlet setting. Perhaps this is why I haven't beaten it yet; it should be almost trivial to win a best of three, since it would remove the issue of bad hands almost completely, but I still want to do it with 10 straight.

I made an isochron scepter deck that gets a scepter with a fog effect on turn 2-3 almost every game, but it was too slow if the AI got the right start. Dark ritual/2nd undead warchief on turn 1 = done I'm also trying to do it without a Moat since almost everyone is just doing that.

[Snacko]

When you run the challenge best of 2+ then the 2nd and following deck are going to be random decks from your collection and not from the challenge which kind of defeats the purpose.
I finished the 1st challenge with a similar hulk flash deck, but packed some interrupts which were useless in the 1st challenge but made wins possible in the following one.

;Hulk Flash
;
;Underdogs
;no.spam@plea.se
;05/08/2009
;1
;4th Edition
;

.1892 1 Elvish Spirit Guide
.1853 4 Protean Hulk
.1317 4 Phyrexian Walker
.1677 2 Arcbound Ravager
.1687 4 Disciple of the Vault
.514 3 Ornithopter
.499 1 Brainstorm
.1850 1 Flash
.1717 4 Force of Will
.352 1 Mystical Tutor
.1852 2 Summoner's Pact
.1424 1 Lotus Petal
.126 2 Island
.1488 2 Flooded Strand
.1487 2 Polluted Delta
.252 3 Tropical Island
.258 3 Underground Sea
.17 1 Black Lotus
.165 1 Mox Emerald
.169 1 Mox Sapphire
.62 1 Demonic Tutor
.1084 1 Merchant Scroll
.166 1 Mox Jet
.168 1 Mox Ruby
.1851 4 Pact of Negation
.333 1 Vampiric Tutor
.1 1 Ancestral Recall
.167 1 Mox Pearl
.312 1 Ponder
.1907 2 Thoughtseize
.331 1 Imperial Seal
.327 1 Grim Tutor
.230 1 Sol Ring

[aww1979]

;why i hate winter orb
;
;#oldgames
;
;07/08/2009
;1
;4th Edition
;

.1956 4 Collective Restraint
.1975 4 Propaganda
.1 1 Ancestral Recall
.333 1 Vampiric Tutor
.62 1 Demonic Tutor
.610 4 Glimpse the Unthinkable
.17 1 Black Lotus
.166 1 Mox Jet
.167 1 Mox Pearl
.169 1 Mox Sapphire
.230 1 Sol Ring
.287 3 Winter Orb
.258 4 Underground Sea
.331 1 Imperial Seal
.806 4 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
.528 1 Strip Mine
.1718 1 Chrome Mox
.317 1 Tolarian Academy
.1487 4 Polluted Delta
.1424 1 Lotus Petal
.168 1 Mox Ruby
.165 1 Mox Emerald
.457 1 Mox Diamond
.1521 4 Font of Mythos
.266 2 Volcanic Island
.252 2 Tropical Island
.254 2 Tundra
.114 4 Howling Mine
.249 1 Time Walk
.441 1 Thirst for Knowledge
.309 1 Windfall

Simple premise. Lock up all the opponent's mana with Winter Orb and The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale and then they don't have enough to attack because of Propaganda and Collective Restraint. Tutor or use card advantage to get everything together, and deck the opponent with Glimpse the Unthinkable, assisted by 4x Howling Mine and Font of Mythos. Maximize collective restraint by using fetchlands on the missing types.

The deck was a breeze. The only deck that gave it any 'problems' was the goblin deck, due to a bug in the interaction between Goblin Lackey and Propaganda / Collective Restraint where the AI could play goblins even when the Lackey was denied the attack, and sometimes ignore those enchantments if Lackey were trying to attack. And I did it without moats! (the original version had moats, but I cut white to prevent mana screw)

The deck title comes from the fact that I absolutely HATE Winter Orb. Not because it's bad (it's actually a great card) but because it's so darned annoying to play against, even if its buddy Icy Manipulator isn't around.

I'm not sure what the second challenge is; I clicked too fast at the end and missed what I think was a screen of explanations. I then went into deckbuilder, threw in the five new cards I saw (they were there before, but I assumed they were still 'locked') to try them out, but then the game said my deck was illegal because I had too many copies of Goblin Welder and booted me. I did have way more than 4, I just didn't know I was already into another challenge :p I hope I can resume the second one without redoing the first...

EDIT: oh ok once you beat the first challenge, then challenge mode asks you if you want to do the tribal one again, or the next one, even if you quit Magic.

EDIT #2: Ok I just have to say in the Momir match, the AI getting Putrid Leech on turn 2 and TERRAVORE on turn 3 is not fair. That is all.

[thedrigo]

With my deck, I tried to either outrun the AI with a 1st turn Hellkite Overlord or to lock him down with Platinum Angel. An opening hand with, Dark Ritual / Black Lotus along with Entomb and Animate Dead / Exhume or Mox + Entomb + Reanimate will net you the game, in any matchup, except Slivers and Fish. That's the reason for the Daze since FoW needs to blue cards to pitch and there's not a lot in hand most of the time; I only ran Daze to disrupt FoWs, bottom line: it's easier to bounce an Island and you're required to lose enough life as it is. The deck comes online on turn 3 at the latest, that's why there's Propaganda and Darkness, in case I don't draw what I need right away.

Here's the list:

4 Underground Sea
3 Watery Grave
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Lotus Petal
3 Chrome Mox

3 Animate Dead
4 Reanimate
4 Exhume
4 Entomb
2 Buried Alive

1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Personal Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
3 Careful Study
1 Ancestral Recall

2 Propaganda
1 Darkness
4 Daze
1 Time Walk

2 Platinum Angel
1 Hellkite Overlord
1 Akroma Angel of Wrath

I disregarded the rest of the moxen because they're useless in the color base of this deck, I need black mana most of the time and an opening hand Mox Ruby or Mox Pearl do nothing for the deck, so I ran Chrome Mox instead.

[reng0r0]

aww1979:

Your deck is a beast. I just used it on the second challenge and only got stopped because I got mana screwed. The matchups up to then were crazy easy.

[aww1979]

aww1979:

Your deck is a beast. I just used it on the second challenge and only got stopped because I got mana screwed. The matchups up to then were crazy easy.

Yeah, I made a new deck for the second challenge, since that one is so darned boring. Plus, as I said, I *HATE* winter orb, even if it's on my side! I did try it once on the second challenge, but as I posted earlier, AI got Terravore with Momir on turn 3, and I was done, and I didn't try with that deck again. The first AI deck in challenge #2 was a bit problematic since it was 90 cards, but it can still be beaten. If it were more than about 100 cards, my deck would automatically fail unless the AI committed suicide.

[Zeek]

I'll leave the other topic for challenge one. After all, it's easier to keep them seperate, and it's not like there's a ton of posting outside the stickies anyway.

I've been doing best of 1 matches, which makes this a lot harder. But on the plus side, at least if the game crashes (or your computer turns off unexpectedly >_>), you don't lose as many minutes of effort.

At first, I was really trying to mix it up. I had been using a High Tide version of Tendrils, but I kept running into Time Spiral being countered. Plus, the "make Zeek's spells cost more" deck can be a real pain. It's not fun to see Grand Arbiter Augustin IV pop out turn 2 thanks to a Chrome Mox, then watch Magister Sphinx get cast next turn for 1WUB while you can't even afford to cast Time Walk for 3U.

So I busted out a red deck. I changed it a lot, even went to a Burning Bridges type build with almost no creatures but instead using Pyroclasm and Volcanic Fallout to clear the board early, but later went more towards the Sligh route. I tinkered with Isochron Scepter, but found it to be inefficient if I went into the bridge defense topdecking mode.

Bridge Sligh made it all the way to the Akroma vanguard once, but lost that #9 match due to a slight mana problem and the sheer speed of goblins getting first strike, flying, vigilance, and/or protection from red. Not cool. Still, I consider that to be relatively successful.

Anyway, back to Tendrils. May as well list the deck, but it contains too many one-of's I'm honestly too lazy to sort it. So breeze past if you'd like.

.1711 4 Helm of Awakening
.1 1 Ancestral Recall
.1395 1 Frantic Search
.1991 4 High Tide
.1084 1 Merchant Scroll
.352 1 Mystical Tutor
.249 1 Time Walk
.250 1 Timetwister
.1910 1 Yawgmoth's Will*
.1848 2 Tendrils of Agony
.62 1 Demonic Tutor
.165 1 Mox Emerald
.166 1 Mox Jet
.167 1 Mox Pearl
.168 1 Mox Ruby
.169 1 Mox Sapphire
.17 1 Black Lotus
.258 4 Underground Sea
.230 1 Sol Ring
.1487 4 Polluted Delta
.1633 2 Watery Grave
.254 2 Tundra
.252 4 Tropical Island
.1923 1 Fact or Fiction
.1900 1 Memory Jar
.1351 1 Tinker
.1342 4 Time Spiral
.157 1 Mana Vault
.317 1 Tolarian Academy
.80 1 Fastbond
.390 1 Crop Rotation
.349 1 Enlightened Tutor
.499 1 Brainstorm
.1308 1 Platinum Angel
.312 1 Ponder
.309 1 Windfall
.402 3 Sensei's Divining Top

The only odd thing would be the Platinum Angel, which really is just there because again, a lot of decks have no answer to it, so using Tinker to play it on turn 2 can assure victory whether my deck feels like working or not. The Divining Tops are seemingly a weird choice, but with an untapped Academy or Helm in play they're basically free, and are quite valuable at fishing spells in the case where you suddenly realize you can't mulligan a Time Spiral (I've had great starts come to a dead stop when a new Spiral hand was straight mana and no draw) or if you want a tutor to give you a card NOW. They also combo with the Helm and a Tendrils for infinite storm power if you can get two, which actually had me Demonic Tutor for a second Top once.

I finally got through all 10 matchups. I don't have quite the awesome rundown of all the matches like I did in the previous topic, since in all honesty the Tendrils deck is pretty much playing solitaire, although I did have quite a few odd moments.

In the Momir matchup, we sorta came to a standoff. It was kinda funny that I had no mountains to power Hellkite Overlord, and I kept tapping Petra Sphinx and naming Mountain, only to see every other land. For a while, though, I kept tapping 10, hoping for Progenitus, because I once saw my opponent get it. But I think the converted mana cost is wrong, because all I get from 10 mana activations are Broodstar and Stratadon, neither of which are paticularly helpful.

Against the Nekritaal, I had the craziest opening hand. 3 moxes, Helm of Awakening, Tolarian Academy, a Top, and Platinum Angel. Turn 1 I literally dumped everything on the board, knowing that the Angel in play was game. Yeah, sure, between his avatar and my Helm he had the absolutely broken ability to play Relentless Rats for only B each, but who cares when I can't lose? I never got anywhere close to 0 life anyway, however, since I was able to Top up a Fetchland, shuffle and Top a Time Spiral, flipped the Top in order to cast it, eventually using my massive mana power to win.

Boss battle. Chaos Orb verses Reaper King.
Turn 1. Goblin Balloon Brigade. Go. He plays a land and passes.
Turn 2. Cast Bonesplitter, equip, swing for 3. He's down to 12. His turn again produces nothing but land.
Turn 3. Swing again and Lava Spike him. 6 life left. His 3rd turn STILL casts no spells, although he does go down to 5 life thanks to a fetchland.
Turn 4. Again my goblins' attack goes unanswered. I figured now was as good a time as any to use my Orb's ability to fetch any card I want. Throwing originality out the window, I went for the good ole fashioned Lightning Bolt.
Turn...oh wait. That was it. GG.