Nissa's Heroic Encounter 1: Gaea's Revenge

raidan

I have beaten 24 of the 25 Heroic encounters, but I cannot beat Nissa's first deck that has Gaea's Revenge and Evolutionary Leap.

I have tried a bounce/control deck, but hexproof ensures nothing works.

I have also tried a burn/support destroy deck, but even if I kill Gaea's Revenge and Evolutionary Leap, I barely manage to hold on for a couple more rounds.

For those of you who have beat this, what strategy did you use?

BlackSheep101

Does Gaea's Revenge trample? If not, Murder Investigation could shut it down.
Edit: throw in Knightly Valor and you don't even need to use Sharp Eyes to give your soldier tokens Vigilance

Unknown

Murder investigation works, consul wil also just completely destroy it as it is a 6/5 first striker for 12 once you cast sharp eyes on him.

Gideon wipes the floor with nissa.

EDHdad

I have beaten this level, but I forgot if I did it with Nissa or Chandra.

First thing you want to do is get rid of the Evolutionary Leap. With Chandra, you need Demolish or Smash to Smithereens early on (or get really really lucky with a Volcanic Rambler). Then you need to smash your creatures into their creatures or have their creatures smash your creatures. So, defender / reach / berserker. After that, you need to not be dead long enough to finish the opponent.

With Nissa, you can try to cascade into an early Conclave Naturalists to get rid of the Evolutionary Leap, and fight the ground war with berserker / defender / reach.

If you have The Great Aurora, then just cast it early on, wipe out Evolutionary Leap and Gaea's Revenge at the same time and then start throwing down your troops.

In blue, you might be able to do something cute with Day's Undoing and Displacement Wave.

I had overall success with this Chandra build:

Chandra's Fury
Embermaw Hellion
Exquisite Firecraft
Fiery Impulse
Ghirapur Aether Grid
Iroas' Champion
Lightning Javelin
Skyraker Giant
Smash to Smithereens
Volcanic Rambler

This Nissa Build:

Animist's Awakening
Battlefield Forge
Conclave Naturalists
Dwynen's Elite
Honored Hierarch
Mage-Ring Network
Nissa's Pilgrimage
Rhox Maulers
Skysnare Spider
The Great Aurora

This other Nissa Build:

Aerial Volley
Animist's Awakening
Brawler's Plate
Dwynen's Elite
Honored Hierarch
Nissa's Pilgrimage
Ramroller
Rhox Maulers
Skysnare Spider
The Great Aurora

and some other builds I didn't write down. Good luck!