Challenges

[frankzappa]

Can anyone please tell me why this deck is not legal for the Chaos Orb challenge? I've been removing cards from all the way down to just forests and it still doesn't work. Been losing my mind trying to figure it out.

[frankzappa]

Hmm it's working now with the same deck! Very strange. I also notice that the first challenge (the tribal one) is now creating a creature which it never used to.

[aww1979]

If the tribal challenge wasn't getting a free creature before, then something wasn't right; each round should get a creature designed to help that particular deck, such as Goblin King or whatever. I've found in the past that occasionaly the game gets confused and is using the csv numbers for limited or custom instead of constructed, and so when you think you have 4 Awakening Zone (as an example) it might think you have 4 of *insert restricted card here* instead, and you need to switch to limited and then back to constructed in the menu.

[frankzappa]

Ahhhh interesting! Thank you

I think there may be a bug where the game does the last challenge you chose, and not the most recent one. So I was playing the tribal challenge, and now I went back to the Chaos Orb challenge, but it's still playing tribal and it's still getting the free creature at the start. I wonder if that was why it failed before, because I before I played the Chaos Orb, I had tried to play the "Dude" challenge which required creatures only, so maybe it thought it was still on that challenge.

I think from now on, I'll restart the game between challenges just to be sure. It starts instantly anyway so it's no problem.

[aww1979]

Yeah that could be the issue as well; I forgot about that, but I think you are right.

[frankzappa]

Does anyone know a good a good storm deck to beat this chaos orb challenge? The others are ok but that one... lol.

[aww1979]

If you go to the decks and strategy subforum there are some threads for each of the challenges. I don't remember for sure what I used, but I'm pretty sure it was a tendrils deck.

[frankzappa]

Oh cool, thanks I'll check that out I love these challenges, it's nice having something to work towards.

[draconite]

First of all, let me start by saying that the idea of restricting certain cards to challenges is just a horrible, horrible idea. I don't want to work for my cards, if I wanted to do that, I'd just buy them in real life.

Second of all, how do I start the challenges? I'd like to point out that MagicCustom.exe doesn't work for me at all, so if I'm supposed to be using that, then I'm screwed, because I just can't use that. At all. It just doesn't open for me.

So, I know that you check "challenge mode" in either Limited or Constructed (why you decided to mod into three different versions of this game is beyond me) and then you're given a series of options on a menu at the beginning of the match. When I select one, it brings me to another menu, and when I select another, it says that something or another is invalid, and I just lose the match right off the bat.

The only thing that I can think of is that my deck is inappropriate for the challenge (I was running a sliver deck), and that I had to make a deck that only used certain cards. However, because there's no description of the challenges available (as far as I can tell, at least) then I have no way of even starting them.

tl;dr, Challenges are stupid. Either take them out completely or make it so that I don't have to unlock cards.

[aww1979]

First of all, challenges are fun. The AI is pretty dumb most of the time, so challenges make for a more balanced game.

Second of all, run magic.exe, go to gauntlet, and click on challenge mode.

There are three different versions of this game because microprose was retarded and made a hard 2000 card array, so that we cannot have more than that. The three versions are to accomodate the fact that the community has coded more cards than 2000.

If you are automatically losing a challenge, it means one of two things.

1) Your deck does not fit the challenge criteria, which can be found here: http://www.slightlymagic.net/wiki/Challenge_Mode So, for instance, in the Warlock challenge, if you are using nonsorceries, then you will be handed an automatic loss as you are describing.

2) Your deck is not type 1/vintage legal. You can find the restricted list here http://www.wizards.com/Magic/TCG/Resour ... sfrvintage So if you are doing silly things like using five Black Lotus, then you will be given an automatic loss.

Most individual challenges can be beaten in a few hours of play by the average player. The exceptions to this are definitely Land Ho and the 5:1 challenge; a few of the others may also take several evenings of play.

The easiest challenges are Vanguard, Chipping Away, That's Big, There Can Only Be One, March of the Machines (the first one only; the second one is hard), Master Warlock, Instant Gratification, Easy as 123, and Life's a Lich. Start with those ones first. There are some threads in the decks/strategy subforum where people talk about the decks and strategies they used to beat a particular challenge.

[draconite]

I shouldn't have to work a "few hours" to build a deck that uses Gemstone Mine. End of story.

Also, can't you just switch out whatever cards you want in Custom?

[Gargaroz]

Most individual challenges can be beaten in a few hours of play by the average player. The exceptions to this are definitely Land Ho and the 5:1 challenge; a few of the others may also take several evenings of play.

Sorry, but this is simply not true. Most of the Challenges are not easy to beat at all and require quite luck. However, I still find the enjoyable.

[frankzappa]

Maybe not the average player, but if you look at the decks Aww1979 mentioned earlier, they can help win them pretty easily. For example that first deck I looked at for the tribal challenge, for me, it regularly pops Emrakul out on turn 3 which makes it a piece of cake. I think if someone doesn't like the challenges, they can just check out these spoilers and they will win it in no time. And really, there aren't many cards that locked anyway. There's only about 2 or 3 cards I even want to unlock, I'm mainly playing the challenges for the fun of it.


-- some of them anyway, some are still really hard!

[frankzappa]

Well I changed my mind! Some of them are brutal I've been trying to do the one called "That's big" for ages now. I must have tried it 50 times or more. I tried the deck from the forum and it's a great deck, but it still relies on too much luck. You can't play any cards with 4 mana or less, and yet some of the enemy decks rush you to death on turn 3. And they use black cards so you can't even use the Evoke cost cards like Shriekmaw on them. And then there's the counter deck which sometimes gets a whole army up, and you finally reach 4 mana and play Wrath of God or something and he has a bunch of counters.

I'm thinking it's just pure luck at this point. I tried making my own decks for it and they are pretty good and I have got as far as 9 stages, but it's still down to luck. One of the enemy decks nuked me to death on turn 3 before I could play a single card

Brutal!

I also need to beat this challenge to unlock a card I need to beat another challenge. I love the idea of these challenges but I think they could use a little tweaking to be a bit less brutal.

[jatill]

Agreed that some challenges are insane (though I don't think "That's Big" is one of them). I'm not changing the challenges, but if it makes you feel better, now that the year is new, I plan on torturing myself by going through them all again. Except 5:1. That one is an abomination!