[Archive] Challenge Set 3

[jatill]

Actually, I think a lot of these ones are going to be more challenging than the previous challenges. I mean, how long did it take people to beat Vanguard? :p I still haven't tried Sliver Nation, but I've tried all the others, and they're going to be tough. I've gotten to round 8 and 9 of Master Warlock a couple times, now, but I can't quite seem to finish it. I'm using a Channelball deck. (wipes 16 years of dust off of it)

You're right, some of these challenges are pretty hardcore. I spent the better part of the last month working on the 8 that I did beat. I remember fondly the day I beat 'Easy as 1, 2, 3' on my first try (with a non-oath deck even!). It was all downhill from there

[aww1979]

;masterwarlock2
;
;#oldgames
;
;06/11/2009
;1
;4th Edition
;

.1453 4 Spectral Procession
.27 4 Conqueror's Pledge
.1899 4 Living Wish
.1691 4 Martial Coup
.249 1 Time Walk
.1302 4 Vindicate
.62 1 Demonic Tutor
.307 4 Farseek
.1897 4 Land Grant
.10 1 Balance
.1937 4 Maelstrom Pulse
.12 4 Bayou
.212 4 Savannah
.216 4 Scrubland
.254 4 Tundra
.252 2 Tropical Island
.189 4 Plateau
.241 2 Taiga
.1886 1 Burning Wish

I got tired of getting to round 8 using Channelball :p This deck made it the first try. The mirror match was quite amusing, as Maelstrom Pulse and Martial Coup would wipe the board back and forth. I was actually quite surprised this deck worked so well; I only built it because Channelball was so boring after awhile. There might be ways to optimize it, too, since I never had to tweak it.



Just for interest's sake, here is the Channelball deck. I'm pretty sure if I slugged away at it for a couple hours it could win, but the above deck was far better.

;masterwarlock
;
;#oldgames
;
;05/11/2009
;1
;4th Edition
;

.334 4 Personal Tutor
.30 1 Channel
.84 4 Fireball
.65 4 Disintegrate
.1886 1 Burning Wish
.1897 4 Land Grant
.249 1 Time Walk
.980 4 Blaze
.241 4 Taiga
.252 4 Tropical Island
.266 4 Volcanic Island
.593 4 Chain Lightning
.1899 4 Living Wish
.9 4 Badlands
.189 4 Plateau
.12 1 Bayou
.212 1 Savannah
.164 2 Mountain
.1121 4 Pyroclasm
.10 1 Balance

The actual channelball combo only went off maybe 10-20% of the time; the rest of the games involved using Living Wish to get a hoser dependent on the metagame, like Ali from Cairo or Magus of the Moat, and then throwing X damage spells at the AI's head until it died. It used to have earthquake instead of pyroclasm, but other than that I never changed it except to tweak the mana base a bit.

I remember fondly the day I beat 'Easy as 1, 2, 3' on my first try (with a non-oath deck even!)

I actually tried some non-oath decks first. One was a blue affinity deck with 'cheaper' cards in most slots; frogmite, force of will, myr enforcer, bringer of the blue dawn, stratadon, and the other was a monoblack vampire deck, with the higher CC cards never actually being cast except occasionally Tombstalker. They did alright, but then I remembered Oath of Druids! (How I could forget, I don't know...)

[aww1979]

;instantgratification
;
;#oldgames
;
;06/11/2009
;1
;4th Edition
;

.1 1 Ancestral Recall
.1136 4 Burst Lightning
.1889 4 Cunning Wish
.566 4 Electrolyze
.1782 4 Fire // Ice
.1923 1 Fact or Fiction
.1762 4 Fireblast
.145 4 Lightning Bolt
.1254 4 Incinerate
.1948 4 Volcanic Fallout
.1147 4 Shock
.266 4 Volcanic Island
.164 13 Mountain
.126 5 Island

Won the first attempt with this deck. The only other try I made was last night with a really goofy Archive Trap deck, and it, uh... didn't win I was lucky though in that I got Ancestral Recall in most of my opening hands. Cunning Wish was used on extra copies of Ancestral Recall, direct damage finishers, or volcanic fallout if in serious trouble. (I think I only had to do that once) It's pretty hard to lose if you've cast three ancestral recalls in one game!

[Cheetah]

Easy as 1,2,3

I was sick of playing oath (who isnt ^^), so i beat it with this:

.1811 4 Stratadon
.1766 4 Bringer of the Black Dawn
.1857 4 Tombstalker
.1443 4 Broodmate Dragon
.1768 4 Maelstrom Archangel
.726 4 Moat
.307 4 Farseek
.1 1 Ancestral Recall
.15 3 Birds of Paradise
.12 4 Bayou
.9 3 Badlands
.189 1 Plateau
.212 4 Savannah
.216 3 Scrubland
.241 4 Taiga
.252 3 Tropical Island
.254 1 Tundra
.258 2 Underground Sea
.266 1 Volcanic Island
.1191 4 Wood Elves
.1308 4 Platinum Angel

The deck really is a lot of fun, had to get a little lucky not to run into fairies though.
Sry for the Moats , feels like cheating

[aww1979]

Bug: (not sure which one is the bug though) In Gimme, Twincast is a legal card to use but Reiterate is not, which is illogical, since they do the same thing, minus buyback.

Not sure if it's intended or not, but Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker and Sarkhan Vol are both illegal in Gimme, despite the ability to steal creatures.

[scherbchen]

elf-elf-sliver-sliver-turbofog-kithkin-kihtkin-zombies-kithkin-sliver-turbofog-zombies.

I really like the challenges but the opposing decks are getting a tad repetitive.

[aww1979]

elf-elf-sliver-sliver-turbofog-kithkin-kihtkin-zombies-kithkin-sliver-turbofog-zombies.

I really like the challenges but the opposing decks are getting a tad repetitive.

They are a bit repetitive, yeah. Although, did you notice that the sliver deck is different, now? It has Virulent Sliver :p

[scherbchen]

that might have been the bit that pushed me over the edge

[jatill]

that might have been the bit that pushed me over the edge

There are 21 different decks. For most challenges it's just the luck of the draw.

[aww1979]

Okay, some strange sort of bug here. I went to use Tangle Wire in my MarchOfTheMachines2 deck, and it told me I hadn't unlocked it yet. I have beaten challenge 2 #6 in the past, and so I went to the forum and copied the exact deck I already used to beat it, went to redo the first MarchOfTheMachines challenge, and was then told that this deck was illegal, even though it only has artifacts.

[jatill]

Okay, some strange sort of bug here. I went to use Tangle Wire in my MarchOfTheMachines2 deck, and it told me I hadn't unlocked it yet. I have beaten challenge 2 #6 in the past, and so I went to the forum and copied the exact deck I already used to beat it, went to redo the first MarchOfTheMachines challenge, and was then told that this deck was illegal, even though it only has artifacts.

What's the deck list?

[aww1979]

The very first deck on this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=57&t=1577

[jatill]

The very first deck on this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=57&t=1577

Odd. That deck works fine for me. (And also Tangle Wire is unlocked for me). Even with your config, I get the no problems. You're definitely not confusing this with the 2nd March challenge, right?

[aww1979]

Yeah, I doublechecked it, and I'm not confusing the challenges, and Tangle Wire is definitely not usable by me, and the (unlocked) is not by that challenge. I also tried this deck and it didn't work, either.

I'll try playing around with it to see whether it's the blue artifacts or artifact creatures or artifact lands or if it just hates everything I do :p

EDIT: I found the cause of the problem, though I cannot explain it. I ran the version switcher and told it to do 'best of MTG' again, which is what it already was set to. I then tried the test list and my original decklist for that challenge and it worked. So it's definitely something to do with the version switcher, but I was already in the right version, so I don't know what happened. I'd guess that it was seeing some of the artifacts as non-artifact zendikar cards somehow.

[aww1979]

Wow! The ones I have left are really hard... well except maybe Sliver Nation, I still haven't even checked what that is, yet. Anyway, this is my deck that beat March of the Machines #2. I should emphasize that this took many, many, many tries, and I tweaked all kinds of things in this deck, so don't expect to make it the first time around with this!

.724 4 Tangle Wire
.1573 4 Smokestack
.18 4 Black Vise
.17 1 Black Lotus
.165 1 Mox Emerald
.166 1 Mox Jet
.167 1 Mox Pearl
.168 1 Mox Ruby
.169 1 Mox Sapphire
.230 1 Sol Ring
.1909 1 Trinisphere*
.894 1 Mana Crypt
.157 1 Mana Vault
.1306 4 Sculpting Steel
.164 13 Mountain
.159 4 Meekstone
.287 4 Winter Orb
.1501 1 Zuran Orb
.1957 4 Cursed Scroll
.1894 4 Goblin Charbelcher
.546 4 Weakstone

Other cards I tried were Sphere of Resistance, Ankh of Mishra, Ivory Tower, Howling Mine, Serum Powder, and Ensnaring Bridge.

Using a vise deck seemed the most obvious way to go, so I started with that. It eventually became Vise/Stax in order to add removal stuff, and then I added scrolls and belchers for more damage sources. Tangle Wire is sick with Meekstone and Winter Orb. Tap your own vises, tangle wires, stacks, and zuran orb first, since they still work tapped. After that, tap anything you aren't using, like maybe a cursed scroll or meekstone you don't need that turn. The Smokestack generally ate Mana Vault/Crypt first, then any extra meekstones, winter orbs, or lands. (always land before moxes due to winter orb)

The deck is actually quite hard to play, and in general I found through experimenting that you rarely want to put more than 1 counter on your smokestack. You can normally afford the loss of one card a turn, maybe 2 for a short time, but at first I was loading the darn thing up every turn, and that didn't work. I'm not sure how to explain it, except that if you play a few dozen times with it, you'll see :p