Challenge 4-2 : Pit Fighting

[Acra]

I've beaten this challenge easily with a belcher - empty the warrens Deck (i've tried it with a normal storm or reanimator deck but they weren't that great)

.1 1 Ancestral Recall
.1351 1 Tinker
.250 1 Timetwister
.1509 1 Windfall
.2275 4 Elvish Spirit Guide
.2219 4 Tinder Wall
.30 1 Channel
.4293 4 Land Grant
.8480 4 Simian Spirit Guide
.1423 3 Seething Song
.2492 4 Rite of Flame
.8162 4 Empty the Warrens
.17 1 Black Lotus
.8131 2 Chromatic Star
.6408 1 Chrome Mox
.6449 4 Goblin Charbelcher
.165 1 Mox Emerald
.168 1 Mox Ruby
.169 1 Mox Sapphire
.167 1 Mox Pearl
.166 1 Mox Jet
.894 1 Mana Crypt
.157 1 Mana Vault
.241 1 Taiga
.252 1 Tropical Island
.230 1 Sol Ring
.3963 1 Memory Jar
.9224 4 Manamorphose
.282 1 Wheel of Fortune
.1424 1 Lotus Petal
.2675 1 Lion's Eye Diamond
.1548 1 Brainstorm
.11013 1 Gitaxian Probe

[mox]

I suppose I've been lucky, this deck won the challenge on the very first try:

.239 18 Swamp
.126 4 Island
.17 1 Black Lotus
.1423 1 Lotus Petal
.157 1 Mana Vault
.894 1 Mana Crypt
.1546 2 Mox Diamond
.165 1 Mox Emerald
.166 1 Mox Jet
.11311 1 Mox Opal
.167 1 Mox Pearl
.168 1 Mox Ruby
.169 1 Mox Sapphire
.230 1 Sol Ring
.9908 4 Ad Nauseam
.55 4 Dark Ritual
.5777 4 Cabal Ritual
.62 1 Demonic Tutor
.1898 1 Demonic Consultation
.1519 1 Vampiric Tutor
.1518 1 Imperial Seal
.7713 1 Pain's Reward
.286 4 Will-o'-the-Wisp
.1 1 Ancestral Recall
.12002 2 Laboratory Maniac
.2285 1 Force of Will
.1527 1 Mystical Tutor

It is just the good ol' Ad Nauseam + Laboratory Maniac + Ancestral Recall deck, adapted to work with just basic lands and no enchantments.
Having won on the first try it is far from being optimized.

Still, it proved able to win 35% on the 1st turn, 45% on the 2nd turn, and 20% on the 3rd turn.
Will-o'-the-Wisp is there to help you to survive up to the 3rd turn when needed.

Mulligan until you get Ad Nauseam or a tutor. Once you can play Ad Nauseam, you win.

BTW: if you happen to loose your Ancestral Recall (either because you played it before Ad Nauseam, or because it got exiled by Demonic Consultation), consider that Pain's Reward works good as well to win after Laboratory Maniac is in play.

[porphyre]

IMHO, taking advantage of 6th edition rules isn't fair.

[HarlequinCasts]

Anyone know what exactly causes the Pit Scorpion s to spawn in this? Seems like they just randomly show up now and then.

Also it seems like the AIs enchantments sort of randomly don't show up sometimes.

And what is giving many but not all creatures shroud?

[Korath]

Whether to get a Pit Scorpion during upkeep actually is random. And all legendary creatures have shroud.

Enchantments are supposed to always be there, but the first-upkeep trigger for challenge mode is... touchy. It should be a little more robust next patch, since it's peripherally affected by the fixes I made to config.txt settings; but I still haven't put a concerted effort into fixing challenge mode yet, and still intend to.

[Aswan jaguar]

The Pit Scorpion if I remember correctly appears only if you play the challenges and you have already unlocked the cards or at least unlocked some of the cards.

[HarlequinCasts]

Alright that one wasn't so bad after about a day of attempts xD

I went the reanimator approach, which is tricky because you can't use Animate Dead (AI has Presence of the Master) and you can't use non-basics to shuffle your library (Blood Moon). So be really careful with Entomb until it gets patched because it alphabetizes your library which can be extremely dangerous.

I was very happy with the creature choices and used 100% of them on some round or other. Angel of Despair is probably the least useful, and the Sheoldred, Whispering One and Buried Alive combo is an all star. Also turn 1 Innocent Blood is great.

Swamp x16

Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite x1
Iona, Shield of Emeria x1
Akroma, Angel of Wrath x1
Sheoldred, Whispering One x1
Putrid Imp x4
Angel of Despair x1
Platinum Emperion x1
Sphinx of the Steel Wind x1

Buried Alive x4
Exhume x4
Reanimate x4
Demonic Tutor x1
Innocent Blood x4
Dark Ritual x4
Entomb x4
Vampiric Tutor x1

Black Lotus x1
Lotus Petal x1
Mox Jet x1
Mox Pearl x1
Mox Sapphire x1
Mox Ruby x1
Mox Emerald x1

[Zede71]

After trying various combinations of decks posted here, i kept getting wasted on the red direct damage deck. After much tinkering and about 20 attempts, this worked a treat

;Peacefrog
;
;User
;User E-Mail
;05/03/2016
;1
;4th Edition
;

.188 21 Plains
.17 1 Black Lotus
.167 1 Mox Pearl
.10 1 Balance
.290 4 Wrath of God
.10386 4 Baneslayer Angel
.230 1 Sol Ring
.10527 4 Day of Judgment
.3023 4 Peacekeeper
.6935 4 Pulse of the Fields
.8412 3 Martyr of Sands
.1509 4 Grim Monolith
.3334 1 Winds of Rath
.7007 4 Auriok Champion
.10790 3 Kor Firewalker

Pulse of the Fields and Martyr ended up make the direct damage deck the easiest of the lot !