First, my decks use the starter cards only, this should allow you, who don't spend money, to do the daily quests and grinding with any archetype against the AI, without any unlocks. Because of the daily goldlimit, progress will be slow and you will stay long term with the starter cards, so it's important that you get good decks to grind easier.
Many decks have a flyer-theme, the reason is, that the AI is slow and play foremost only creatures on the ground. So the goal is to rush them with hard to block cheap flyers and win the game fast without many resistance. and are very good for that, but the other colors without flyers have other good ways to deal with the AI, like removal and buffs.
You will also see 4 Perilous Myr and 4 Strider Harness in many of my decklists. Perilous Myr is one of the most flexible cards in the game, almost always usable in many situations and an awesome defender against aggro and could trade 1:2 early on. Even in the worst case as Chumpblocker, it would shock the opponent. Strider Harness isn't that good, but the starter cardpool have very few non-creature-spells and many of them are bad, too expensive or very situational. This lead to lot of creatures in my decks (where is almost always a place for Perilous Myr). Because of so many little creatures, an artifact what gives +1/+1 to a creature helps a lot. Strider Harness is expensive, but the creature you would play afterwards would have haste, so they wouldn't lose any time for attacking. Also it's very flexible and hard to remove, you could attack with a creature and than swap Strider Harness back to a defender for only . The haste is also useful to suprise the AI later in the game and end games quicker.
All of my decks here run 24 land although the curves end at 4-5 mana. There are many reason for that: Many decks have their sweetspot at 24 land, only fast aggro decks with a lot of 1-drops play less in DoTP. My decks run very few 1 drops, but have a lot of 2,3 and 4-drops, like many 24 land-decks. Activating Strider Harness cost also so to have more mana isn't bad. There are room for more expensive spells and some cards are manasinks, so manaflood isn't that tragic.
All the ten suggested dualcolored archetypes in Duels:Magic have a theme and this themes are supported by the starter cards and by the new "Origins" cards too. I would recommend to stay at this archetypes at the beginning, because of the synergies of the cards, formost with the very good dualcolored uncommons which should be always put in a deck if they are aviable. Some archetypes work efficient at the beginning, some not, but these could change after unlocking importent cards for them. So here the decks, they have their original archetype name and the original description, i additional explain how this decks work and how well they fit to the archetype:
"Control The Sky" Defeat your opponent with an aerial assault, while your ground creatures defend. This deck fit perfectly to the archetype. The ground creatures are for defense/early attacks only, the cheap flyers do the rest. Try to get a Strider Harness on a Skyhunter Skirmisher for much more damage.
"From the Grave" Reuse and recycle cards using the power of your graveyard. Because of the low creature quality, a graveyard theme isn't efficient. It's better to stick at the blue flyers and rush the opponent. Jorubai Murk Lurker's lifelink let you win damage races and the Gravediggers bring back your creatures, at least he fit into the theme.
"Tempt With Fire" Turn the tables by stealing opposing creatures and using them against your foes. The deck fit to the theme, but have only few stealing/sacrifice spells. If you unlock more cards, you should put more of them into this deck. The cheap creatures are for blocking and early attacks, until Bloodflow Connoisseur shows up, than you can try to steal and sac some creatures. This deck have many ways to kill weak creatures, so save Traitorous Instinct for the big ones or the final strike.
"Horde's Thunder" More lands mean bigger creatures to smash your enemies with. The only thing you could use ramp into with the starter cards is Axebane Stag, but this isn't a good card. My deck use a lot of tramplers instead, which are cheaper and better. Put the +1/+1 from Timberland Guide on of your bigger creatures, so they are hard to block with Battlefront Krushok and use the ability of Kird Chieftain to push through.
"Tactical Tricks" Turn your small creatures into deadly combatants. Your opponent won't know what to block ! This archetype is designated for the new "renown" mechanic, but the starter cards have no creature with this mechanic. It's good to replace cards with "renown"-creatures if they aviable. Anyway, in my deck you can buff your creatures well and you have some combat tricks. Skyhunter Skirmisher is the VIP of this deck, try to buff him with anything if possible, so he can do a lot of damage.
"Magical Armor" Enhance your creatures to outclass your opponent. Nimbus Wings are the only worthwhile enchantments from the starter cards to use in this deck, but put more enchantments into it, if they aviable. Find them with Heliod's Pilgrim and try to get them on your bigger creatures, or put them early on Elite Vanguard and Child of Night.
"The Right Tools" Artifacts are cards which don't require a specific color to cast, and often have unique, powerful effects. This deck fit into its archetype, but yet it's more about blue flyers. Put Inferno Fist on your flyers for a lot of damage. Barrage Ogre is useful for the first Thopter-tokens, if you get some cards for this deck, because they aren't that useful if you didn't build around them, so it's better to sacrifice them.
( )"Elvish Fury"( ) Assemble an overhelming army of Elves. It's all about elves, but there aren't far less than it should. I put even Sunblade Elf and one Plains into the deck to get more. Jagged-Scar Archers and Lys Alana Huntmaster are the most important elves here, bring them back with Corpse Hauler if they died. Gatecreeper Vine is good to find the one Plains, making Chorus of Might better and thin your deck down. Because Elves are all about masses, buffing individual elves isn't efficient, the best thing to do is to unlock more cards and replace all non-elves creatures and Sunblade Elf with other elves.
"All-Out Assault" Hit the ground running! Finish your opponents before they have a chance to set up defenses. This archetype want to be fast an aggro deck, but the starter cards aren't efficient enough. Instead my deck is all about casting Nimbus Wings on Flaring Flame-Kin and Scrapyard Mongrel, or Inferno Fist on Skyhunter Skirmisher for a big amount of damage. Heliod's Pilgrim will help alot to find the enchantments.
"Push Through" Summon a small army and use spells to protect it and win. This archetype is about to tap and hinder the opponent creatures and swing in with green creatures. Sadly the starter cards have almost nothing what helps, so i think it's better to use blue flyers and combine them with hard to block green creatures. Put the +1/+1 counters from Timberland Guide on your flyers or Juggernaut to make them better.
That's it, i hope this ten decks will help you alot and you have fun with them. After some time,you will replace more and more cards with better ones and make the decks even stronger. If you change cards, be sure that the color-base is still alright, so if you put, for example, many green spells into a deck, and remove spells with a different color, you should adjust the lands and put more Forest into your deck. To make it easier, delete all the (basic-)land and let the AI auto-complete the land, it will find a good ratio.
Last edited by Latieon on Wed Jul 29, 2015 5:49 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Hi Latieon. Still looking over the lists but I wanted to thank you for this contribution. I'm sure it'll help those of us who plan on being f2p for now.
p.s. I'm not sold on the Strider Harness but the rest of it seems good. I will update this post after I have tested these (hopefully tomorrow). Thanks again!
Joined: Nov 10, 2013 Posts: 17758 Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
awesome thread!! What a great idea, super helpful. You should put your opinion about which of the ten starters is best at running over the AI the fastest.
Hi Latieon. Still looking over the lists but I wanted to thank you for this contribution. I'm sure it'll help those of us who plan on being f2p for now.
p.s. I'm not sold on the Strider Harness but the rest of it seems good. I will update this post after I have tested these (hopefully tomorrow). Thanks again!
Thanks, it's a pleasure. I would use Strider Harness either in better constructed decks, but... it's much better than other starter stuff. Most non-creature spells don't fit in that limited cardpool, so i was forced to build very creature heavy decks. Strider Harness will help, because you will have always enough creatures around to equip, and will make the difference. A other good reason is, that Aeronaut Tinkerer and Scrapyard Mongrel are good cards in this limited environment, more artifacts help them, and put a Strider Harness on them, helps even more. The last thing is, that with 24 land, most card should be 3-drops. Sadly, the 3-drops are very rare, but Strider Harness fit that gap very well.
awesome thread!! What a great idea, super helpful. You should put your opinion about which of the ten starters is best at running over the AI the fastest.
Thanks so much Sadly i don't know what the best deck are, i would play the game on steam. But i think could be the strongest if you get the right enchantments on your creatures.
Don't forget that currently you have to build the decks with deck wizard.
I heard this is a bug and should get fixed. But before the bugfix you make a archedeck, but change afterwards the cards, this will bybass the bug.
Wait, you can make some random deck though wizard and then edit it however you want and still get the gold for quest?
Does this mean you can completly change everying (including colors and stuff). seems like it would be broken.
Someone had a good point saying that the quest specifically says archtype meaning it was ment that it was supposed to be made in wizard because that's how the quest describes it and that's what the wizard calls itself. are you sure you can edit them and still get quests?
I think you need more elves, i would recommend 28+ elfcards. I wouldn't recommend my decklist, because Elves are about masses. It's more a decklist, if you get some mor eelves and replace the non-evles with them.
The goal is to get so many elves on the board, that cards like Chorus of Might, Jagged-Scar Archers and later Might of the Masses and Shaman of the Pack could almost one-shot the opponent. Attack fast with early elves, if the opponent get enough blockers, play defensive and play as much elves as you can and overhelm him with them. Because you have so many elves on the ground, the opponent could hardly attack you, and you can kill his flyers very easily with Jagged-Scar Archers. Later attack with all, play Chorus of Might or Might of the Masses and kill the opponent in one big move.
I would really appreciate you making a deck for the 15 energy and win. That one is the worst
I tried Maggits Revolt deck which always wins and with snake, makes energy but it rarely makes 16 energy so I need something better
Also a deck that taps 100 artifacts too
Thanks GoA!
Someone posted a deck list in the constructed forums based around CGB's eggs w/ ketchup build. He's revised it to Rakdos (which I like much better) and it can definitely grind the tap 100 artifacts - https://www.magicduelshelper.com/deckli ... 35283d748e. It's fun as heck (actually one of my favorite decks atm) but can have a lot of decision points and activations.
I never posted a finalized build on the Jund energy/counter constructed thread I had started and it's been through quite a few variations (I think I have something like 4 slots dedicated to decks for this idea so I could test/compare variations). Regardless, instead of me typing out a list, CGB also put something together that's very similar and can definitely get games that cover the 15 energy - https://www.magicduelshelper.com/deckli ... 5f6710beea
elk
Edit: I should clarify; since this is posted in a threat about grinding quests and has several references to using only starter cards, the links I've listed do include cards outside of the starter pack(s).
Joined: Nov 10, 2013 Posts: 17758 Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
yeah, that are 100% the only two that are troublesome. but I really think the 15 energy one is FAR worse. Cuz you have to also win the game. i've won tons of games where I didn't make the 15 energy. And the games that I do generate more than 20 energy are almost always the ones i lose cuz I've obviously only drawn the energy generators and not the spenders.
The 100 artifact one is 120 gold at least, right? It's worth keeping, i wouldn't flip that one. You'll eventually get it. The energy one really grinds my gears.
thanks for the deck, GoA! I didn't even look at this list I called hot garbage, if it makes you feel better
120 gold, yes, but that's 1.2 gold per point of progress. Far lower than any other quest, and unless you're making an army of token creatures, you usually aren't tapping more than 1-2 artefacts per turn at most.
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