A quest strategy question

[timmermac]

After losing 15 of my first 16 matches in my current quest, I've recovered to a record of 19-28. I'm still running with the starting amount of life. For those of you that quest, I'm wondering how high a priority you assign to adding more life to your start, or what you would do instead of that.

[Chris H.]

After losing 15 of my first 16 matches in my current quest, I've recovered to a record of 19-28. I'm still running with the starting amount of life. For those of you that quest, I'm wondering how high a priority you assign to adding more life to your start, or what you would do instead of that.

`
I guess that we all will develop our own way to start a quest. I like to start with a 40 card two color deck. I select Easy at the Quest Options window. This way I win new cards after each match. Cards that are of little use to you can be sold at the Card Shop and this will give you the credits to buy cards that will improve your deck.

The Bazaar has some interesting upgrades. The wall at the Nursery can give you a good blocker against any weenies that come out early. The Wolf at the Beasts shop is nice after it has been trained to a Flanking 2/2 critter. The wolf can do some damage for a few turns while you wait for the mana needed to cast your fatties.

The upgrades at the other shops can be left until later in the quest. You want to start with a reasonably good 40 deck. With card winnings and purchases you can build up to a 2 or 3 color 60 card deck. At this point you can save your credits to purchase the remaining upgrades.

I have been playing the fantasy quest for several weeks and my record is now 213 wins and 12 losses. Here is a listing for my current 60 quest deck:

60 Total Cards

23 Creatures
-------------
1x Archivist
1x Ballynock Cohort
1x Battlegrace Angel
2x Calciderm
1x Caravan Escort
1x Champion's Drake
1x Ethersworn Adjudicator
1x Halimar Wavewatch
1x Intrepid Hero
1x Keiga, the Tide Star
1x Kitsune Blademaster
1x Knight of Cliffhaven
1x Longbow Archer
1x Moroii
1x Nirkana Cutthroat
2x Soul's Attendant
1x Stalking Assassin
2x Transcendent Master
1x Venerated Teacher
1x Zulaport Enforcer

16 Spells
----------
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Darksteel Ingot
2x Glorious Anthem
3x Mortify
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Pearl
2x Oblivion Ring
1x Path to Exile
1x Time Walk
1x Time of Heroes
1x Unmake
1x Vindicate

21 Land
--------
2x Azorius Chancery
1x Creeping Tar Pit
2x Dimir Aqueduct
2x Orzhov Basilica
4x Plains
3x Scrubland
1x Sejiri Refuge
1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
2x Tundra
3x Underground Sea

[Beached As]

I find that the wall is the best critter to begin with, although this does depend on the deck you're running. You should start with a 40 card deck and move upwards as you only start with a few good cards (having more cards in your deck will reduce the chance of drawing your good cards). Buying life is important but its expensive and thus money is normally best spent on good cheap cards or upgrading your critters.

I played on very hard mode and my stats are 98 - 16. Here's my deck:

22 Land:
-----------------
1x Fetid Heath
1x Orzhova, the Church of Deals
10x Plains
1x Reflecting Pool
1x Scrubland
7x Swamp
1x Vault of Whispers

20 Creatures:
-----------------
1x Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1x Angel of Despair
1x Battlegrace Angel
1x Doomed Necromancer
1x Kitchen Finks
1x Hypnotic Specter
1x Leaden Myr
3x Mother of Runes
1x Nantuko Shade
1x Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
2x Serra Avenger
1x Shriekmaw
1x Solemn Simulacrum
1x Swans of Bryn Argoll
1x Wall of Reverence
1x Vampire Nighthawk
1x Visara the Dreadful

18 Other:
-----------------
1x Beacon of Unrest
2x Day of Judgment
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1x False Defeat
1x Land Tax
1x Liliana Vess
1x Lotus Petal
1x Path to Exile
1x Pillory of the Sleepless
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Tooth of Ramos
1x Umezawa's Jitte
1x Unmake
1x Unquestioned Authority
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Yawgmoth's Bargain

[Rob Cashwalker]

I have had terrible luck with my card pools. Only after losing 10 matches did I have the right cards to start winning at all. I'm at 6 wins / 13 losses.

After each match, I jump into the deck editor to see if any of the new cards will help my deck. Then I jump into the card shop to see if I can sell anything worth over 100 credits. Just today I sold a card worth 3200+ credits... though I only got 500. It's not worth selling much else under the 80 - 100 credit mark, because eventually I may decide to build a completely different deck, when the colors for those cards become more intriguing.

As soon as I have more than 400 credits, I've bought a life upgrade. (leaving extra for losses and actually buying cards in the shop) I'm now at 21 life, and I just bought and upgraded my first plant wall.

I too started with a 40 card two-color deck, but as I get new cards I've added them directly, adding a land or two here and there. I'm now at 64 cards... but I like all the cards I have. Without the luxury of 4-ofs, my deck has a number of tool-box type cards that so far, haven't ever been dead in hand. I have Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre and Artisan of Kozilek, both of which have seen play a few times and saved my butt. I have Lilliana Vess and Chandra Nalaar, both invaluable. I have Sarkan Vol in the collection, but I refuse to sell it.

Once I max out the life total and plant token, I may start with the other upgrades.

The fantasy quest experience is totally engrossing, and it makes you really want to keep playing, to see what cards you win and how much better you can make the deck.

Since it seems like we're posting decks, here's mine:
66 Total Cards

19 Creatures
-------------
1x Artisan of Kozilek
1x Daggerclaw Imp
1x Dakmor Ghoul
1x Dancing Scimitar
1x Dauthi Marauder
1x Dusk Imp
1x Flametongue Kavu
1x Flowstone Wall
1x Fog of Gnats
1x Goblin Chariot
1x Goblin Spy
1x Juggernaut
1x Krovikan Scoundrel
1x Lady Orca
1x Moaning Spirit
1x Monstrous Carabid
1x Ogre Warrior
1x Primeval Shambler
1x Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre

19 Spells
----------
1x Blaze
1x Blightning
1x Captive Flame
1x Chandra Nalaar
1x Darkness
1x Darksteel Ingot
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Earthquake
1x Fiery Fall
1x Fists of the Anvil
1x Ghostly Visit
1x Goblin Offensive
1x Heat Ray
1x Immolation
1x Imperial Edict
1x Leonin Scimitar
1x Liliana Vess
2x Molten Rain

28 Land
--------
1x Great Furnace
13x Mountain
12x Swamp
1x Terramorphic Expanse
1x Urborg Volcano

[Chris H.]

Rob makes a good point about selling cards. I think that you have to win 50 or more matches before the selling limit of 500 credits is removed. I have won 2 extra Ancestral Recall and one extra Time Walk. These extras were sold and I used the credits to buy a few upgrades and to buy original dual lands as they became available in the card shop.

The fantasy quest mode gets even better once you have won a number of the normal quest matches … the Quests button becomes active and you will be able to test yourself against special opponents. If you win, you earn additional credits and you will win a few random rares.

Dennis added an easter egg of sorts. I have only seen it twice. The first time I almost went over the edge. It was great. I do not want to spoil this for anyone, so I wont say anymore.

[Almost_Clever]

I have a different approach. I always start off with the Plant Wall, level it up as far as I can afford, then get the Wolf Pet and level it up as far as I can. Generally at that point I will buy the estates upgrades, then the library and finally the extra life.
I always play Fantasy / Very Hard. I've saved quest files where I basically used white / blue soldiers the whole time (I retired it at 256 - 0) and another where I started with red / black goblins (that then morphed into blue milling and then morphed again into a 5-color Green Door to Nothingness / Helix Pinnacle alternative win conditions deck just to try out different deck types) that I retired at 118 - 0. My current deck is a white / blue milling deck with a 20 - 0 record.
Initially against the level 1 / 2 opponent decks, a good strategy is a quick weenie rush. Typically with 1 - 3 mana, high-power creatures, you often should be able to quickly beat down the opponents before they can even get started. My goblin deck was generally getting the turn 10 / turn 15 bonuses, which really helped being able to buy the cards that would help my deck. I sell everything I'm not planning on using, regardless if it really nets me anything just to get it out of my way in the deck editor view. I wouldn't sell big ticket cards (over 5000 credits) until you have at least 50 wins to get past the 500 credit limit on selling cards, though.

[mtgrares]

I always buy more life. (My brain has become accustomed to 20 life.) I usually go for the plant. If my deck is fast having an extra blocker is good and if my deck is slow, I need an early blocker. Later I upgrade my wolf and just crush the computer.

[DennisBergkamp]

I like getting the wolf really early, since it just allows you to beat the computer much quicker. Then I grab the plant, I find it much better than extra life since a smart block can prevent a lot of damage.

[timmermac]

I just found a card to make a really nasty combo with Beastmaster Ascension. It's Doubling Season. I'd have to check the rulings, but get multiples of those out, and watch out, computer!

Edit: Holy Hannah! Checked the rulings, and multiple Doubling Seasons is going to make things really bad for the computer.

[Chris H.]

So … we all are curious. How is Timmmac's and Rob's quests coming. Have the two of you progressed far enough to try out one of the specials quests that become available when the Quests button un-dims?

[Rob Cashwalker]

I just hit 12 wins last night. No special quests yet.

[Chris H.]

I just hit 12 wins last night. No special quests yet.

`
I seem to remember that you need 25 wins to have access to the special quests.

[timmermac]

I'm 48-70 right now, mainly with the red deck at the moment. I've been trying out the beginnings of my Sliver deck, though it's having occasional troubles. I beat the red dungeon crawl once, I lost one of the other ones, I think green. Some the computer's decks are absolutely nasty.

Edit: I've lost another one to the Red dungeon crawl and I also lost the Wolf in the Fold quest.

[Chris H.]

Have you been able to purchase and fully train both the plant wall and the wolf pet? I had some difficulty competing with an early version of my deck. I worked on getting both the wall and wolf trained. They can help to give you the edge that you need to turn things around.

I have beaten most but not all of the dungeon crawl decks. I'm getting close. We have added additional decks to the special quests. They will be available with the next beta release. I guess that we can now consider these special quests opponents to be the "bosses".

[friarsol]

So I've been playing on hard mode and generally start with a three color 40 card deck. My current deck is 95-0. Basically I take a decent amount of time trimming my original card pool to choose the three colors. The first few upgrades I try to make is: treasury to make more money from selling cards. Then Pet and Wall. I think this deck I had 15 life for the first 40-50 games. I've done some major upgrading, and managed to sell some big price cards after the cap was waived.

Here's the deck in it's current state:
41 Total Cards

13 Creatures
-------------
1x Dimir Guildmage
1x Hada Spy Patrol
1x Man-o'-War
1x Masticore
1x Meddling Mage
1x Mirri the Cursed
1x Ranger of Eos
1x Shriekmaw
1x Sky Spirit
1x Student of Warfare
1x Thieving Magpie
1x Tidehollow Strix
1x Weathered Wayfarer

11 Spells
----------
1x Ajani Goldmane
1x Boomerang
1x Gerrard's Verdict
1x Impulse
1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1x Liliana Vess
1x Mox Jet
1x Oblivion Ring
1x Reanimate
1x Sol Ring
1x Unmake

17 Land
--------
1x Arcane Sanctum
1x Celestial Colonnade
1x Glacial Fortress
2x Hallowed Fountain
2x Island
1x Jwar Isle Refuge
1x Marsh Flats
1x Mystic Gate
3x Plains
1x Sejiri Refuge
2x Swamp
1x Tolaria West

If you can't beat your opponent quickly to get bonus bucks, try to get cards that can have Alt Win conditions since they give you even more.