Gideon Heroic Objective Guide

The_Leftist

Gideon Heroic Objective Guide

Quicknote: If you figure out what some of the missing cards are, or have an alternate strategy you would like to share, feel free to comment. Also, these battles tend to be far more difficult than the other Heroics, so don't get too down if you have some difficulty completing them.

Gideon Heroic Battle #1

250 Runes - Aggressive (Cast 1 or less Supports and win the match)
15 Mana Crystals - Spellcaster (Cast 9 or more Spells and win the match)

Starting Opponents Cards: Sigil of the Empty Throne, Starfield of Nyx

Starting Opponents Hand Size: 3 Cards

Opponents Library

Supports (9)

Sigil of the Empty Throne
Starfield of Nyx
Murder Investigation
Brawlers Plate
Knightly Valor
Sigil of Valor
Grasp of the Hieromancer
Suppression Bonds
Hixus, Prison Warden

Unknown (1)

This battle is very, very hard, and very, very annoying. I was able to complete it with Jace once with a lucky placed Claustrophobia, but even then, it took many attempts to get it. The go to Walker here is Chandra. The opponent will amass a enormous Angel via Sigil of the Empty Throne immediately. Murder Investigation and Knightly Valor help feed creatures who are INSANELY buffed. Suppression Bonds and Hixus will keep your creatures disabled if you can't immediately take care of them.

Aggressive Strategy:

Recommended Walkers: Chandra

Make sure that you have both Demolish and Smash to Smithereens in your deck. Having creatures like Volcanic Rambler and Abbot of the Keral Keep will also help with their board shake abilities. Chandra's 1st ability should be the only thing you are casting unless you get a massive cascade that lets her use her 3rd. Burn spells help keep angels and knights off the field, but don't kill any soldiers with burn spells if Murder Investigation is still in play, since it will just respawn. You want to draw either Demolish or Smash to Smithereens 1st turn, and you need it to hit Starfield of Nyx, or Sigil of the Empty Throne will just respawn. One you get Starfield out of the way, keep burning and destroying as many things as possible while you get creatures out. If you want to aim for both objectives at once, and you should, hold of on casting creatures until you have cast at the very least 7 spells. Takes a bit of luck to get the right start, but once you do, the battle becomes pretty easy, but that can change at any time, so don't get comfortable

Spellcaster Strategy:

Recommended Walkers: Chandra

Use the exact same strategy as I recommend using for the Aggressive Objective. Make sure you don't play creatures too early to avoid killing Gideon before you can get enough spells off. If you don't get Starfield off the field first turn, just end the battle and retry. There's very little chance of you pulling it off if you don't and Gideon gets a multiple reinforced Angel off 1st turn.

Gideon Heroic Battle #2

250 Runes - Resilient (Take 8 or less damage and win the match)
15 Mana Crystals - Commander (Cast 9 or more creatures and win the match)

Starting Opponents Cards: Knight of the White Orchid, Grasp of the Hieromancer

Starting Opponents Hand Size: 3 Cards

Opponents Library

Creatures (5)

Knight of the White Orchid
Kytheons Irregulars
Relic Seeker
Akron Jailer
Sentinel of the Eternal Watch

Supports (2)

Grasp of the Hieromancer
Suppressed Bonds

Unknown (3)

This is a really tough battle since you can only get hit by White Orchid twice before you absolutely must get him off the board. I'm not sure if anyone else has had this happen, but when I started the match the 1st time, the opponent made a tile match and filled up his 1st card before I even got to go, although he didn't play it. It didn't happen the 2nd time, so if it happens to you, and things get ugly, just restart and send an anger face emoji to Customer Support. Jace is great for the Resilient objective. Gideon can do it if you don't get hit by Suppressed Bonds and take 9+ damage before you can clear it. Chandra is great for the Commander with a Burn/Thoptor Deck, and Liliana can really excel if you have Hangerback walker.

Resilient Strategy:

Recommended Walkers: Jace, Gideon

Jace will need multiple bounce spells and creatures to avoid getting hit. Mana flow control cards like Jace's Sanctum and Mizzium Meddler are also very helpful to keep Gideon from playing a lot of creatures before you have the bounce cards ready. Gideon can do it if he can get Orchid out of the way early, and build up a buffed 1st striker without getting hit by Suppressed Bonds. If you have Suppressed Bonds and Swift Reckoning, you can kill anything that comes out if you aren't ready to take care of it with 1st strike/Defenders

Commander Strategy:

Recommended Walkers: Chandra, Liliana

Chandra will want a bunch of Burn spells as well as some high attack power low cost cards like Volcanic Rambler, along with creatures that summon multiple Thoptors like Pia and Kiran Naalar and Foundry of the Consul. With Exquisite Firecraft, you can clear Orchid 1st turn, which will be a big help. Sentinel of the Eternal Watch has 7 life, so will require 2 Burn spells unless you have a creature out, since she has defender. Burn her than ram her if she makes an appearance. If you have Hangerback Walker, Liliana can quickly demolish this objective. Start by using something like Unholy Hunger to destroy Orchid. Save up a Necromatic Summons or Dark Petition, and use Lilianas 1st ability or a card that forces you to discard to get Hangarback Walker in the graveyard. Revive cards like Dark Petition revive the last creature to enter your graveyard (not exiled). Use this to easily get Hangerback on the field without paying for his full cost. You can then either keep amassing Thoptors turn by turn, or use a spell to kill him and revive him again for an extra 9 creatures summoned. By killing and reviving him 4 times in the same game, I was able to get more than 40 creatures out in a single game. Once you get enough Thoptors out, you won't even have to use death spells on the offense. They won't stand a chance anyways.

Gideon Heroic Battle #3

250 Runes - Survivor (Win the match with 5 or less HP left)
15 Mana Crystals - Burst (Summon 3 or less creatures and win the match)

Starting Opponents Cards: Heavy Infantry, Pyromancers Goggles

Starting Opponents Hand Size: 3 Cards

Opponents Library

Creatures (5)

Heavy Infantry
Knight of the White Orchid
Sentinel of the Eternal Watch
Archangel of the Tithes
Totem-Guide Hartebeast

Spells (1)

Gideon's Phalanx

Supports (2)

Pyromancer's Goggles
Sword of the Animist

Unknown (2)

For a deck that initally seems easily beatable, let me be the 1st to tell you, it isn't. This deck starts with Pyromancers Goggles and keeps only 1 spell in the deck - Gideon's Phalanx - which summons 4 2/2 soldiers. Thanks to Sword of the Animist, you are going to see this a lot. In my 1st two games researching the Opponents Library, he was able to smash all 3 Goggle gems once in both games. a 24/24 soldier is pretty serious. To make matters worse, there really aren't any minor threats in this deck with the exception of Heavy Infantry. The Survivor Objective seems really luck based since Jace won't be able to bounce enough to control the game without destroying Goggles immediately, which starts with 3 Support lives. Chandra seems to be the way to go for both Objectives thanks to Demolish and Smash to Smithereens and a lot of Burn Spells

Survivor Strategy:

Recommended Walkers: Chandra

For a Rune prize Objective, this is very difficult. You will need Demolish and/or Smash to Smithereens to quickly get rid of Goggles before you have a hulking Knight that will require multiple spells and creatures to take care of. Leave Knight of the White Orchid alone while he chips your life down and you build spells and creatures. Use spells or summon Berserk creatures to take care of anything extra that comes. Be weary of Archangel since she is flying and has a high attack power. If your creatures start dealing a little too much damage, burn them and give Gideon a chance to get you to 5 or under. Once you are there, finish him off with burn spells/creatures. Again, this objective requires a bit of luck since at anytime, a creature can be reinforced and kill you since everything has medium to high attack power.

Burst Strategy:

Recommended Walker: Chandra

Load up on burn spells and your toughest creatures. If you aren't worried about the Survivor objective, you get some breathing room for this one since you won't have to let anything attack you. Demolish/Smash Goggles and burn White Orchid. I wouldn't play any more than one creature at a time in case Knight of the White Orchid gets reinforced and destroys 3 creatures at one. If you do get down to having your 3rd creature destroyed, unleash every burn spell you've got while pinging Gideon for 3 damage with Chandra's 1st ability. This one is significantly easier than the Survivor Objective.

Gideon Heroic Battle #4

250 Runes - Protector (Lose 1 or less creatures and win the match)
15 Mana Crystals - Speed (Win the match in 7 or less rounds)

Starting Opponents Cards: War Oracle, Orbs of Warding, Rouges Passage, Alhamerrets Archive

Starting Opponents Hand Size: 1 Card

Opponents Library

Creatures (6)

War Oracle
Enlightened Ascetic
Cleric of the Forward Order
Aven Battle Priest
Blood Cursed Knight
Archangel of the Tithes

Spells (1)

Healing Hands

Supports (3)

Orbs of Warding
Alhamerrets Archive
Rouges Passage

VERY FRUSTRATING! Orbs and Archive is a magnificent combination that will often heal at least, if not more, any damage inflicted on him. Rouges passage makes War Oracle Unblockable, so that's an additional 10 health per round Gideon is healing. Chandra and Jace can keep the board clear while you focus on reinforcing creatures, and Nissa is the only one with even a chance (and a very small one at that) to beat the Speed Objective. If you thought the Speed Objectives in Chapter 3 were difficult, you are in for a whole new ball game.

Protector Strategy:

Recommended Walkers: Jace, Chandra

It can be very difficult at first to cause any damage, since Orbs and Archive will heal for 4 every time Gideon is hit. With Jace, it's a long battle, but you want to load up on bounces and spell buff creatures (Genie, Owl, Thief, etc). After you control the game for awhile, you will be able to reinforce your creatures. Every time you bounce, you will get a damage bonus as well if you have the spell buff creatures out, otherwise focus on bouncing first, then reinforcing. Chandra can quickly get rid of Archive and Orbs with Demolish/Smash to Smithereens, and can essentially focus on a burn deck to avoid any creature loss at all. I would recommend having at least one creature tho, and only cast that one, that way if it dies, you can still fall back on burning. The only card in here with a lot of life is Archangel, but its mana cost should give you enough time to get burn spells ready.

Speed Strategy:

Recommended Walkers: Nissa

Oh the pain. I tried this one literally over 20 times before finally (barely) getting it. Every hit you do will heal Gideon for 4. War Oracle will heal Gideon for 10 every round. Ascetic and Blood Knight will also heal if he gets them out. You not only have to outrun Gideon, but outrun massive turn by turn healing in 7 rounds! I was only able to do this by getting a 1st round multiple match 5's and getting Outland Colossus and Woodland Bellower out 1st turn AND was able to get them reinforced quickly. Even with Colossus at 24/24 and Bellower at 16/14 early on (I think by 4th round), I was barely able to win on the 7th round. Forget using Nissas 2nd ability to get extra damage. You need to use her 1st, pray for cascades, and pray for reinforcements of your biggest, heaviest green cards. This is EASILY the most frustrating and difficult Objective in the entire game thus far. Perhaps when new cards come out, it will be a bit easier.

Gideon Heroic Battle #5

250 Runes - Aggressive (Cast 1 or less Supports and win the match)
15 Mana Crystals - Commander (Summon 9 or more creatures and win the match)

Starting Opponents Cards: Relic Seeker, Rouges Passage

Starting Opponents Hand Size: 2 Cards

Opponents Library:

Creatures (9)

Relic Seeker
Archangel of the Tithes
Stalwart Aven
War Oracle
Consuls Lieutenant
Kytheons Irregulars
Knight of the White Orchid
Iroas's Champion

Supports (1)

Rouges Passage

Very Creature heavy, and starts with Relic Seeker hiding behind Rouge's passage. He can quickly reach high attributes if you don't do something quickly. There aren't really any minor threats in this deck. Every card played has a chance at ruining anything you've got going. The objectives, however, are relatively easy. Use Chandra and Jace to quickly get Relic Seeker out of the way and keep the board cleared while your creatures ping Gideon to death.

Aggressive Strategy:

Recommended Walkers: Jace, Chandra

Bouncing is easier than burning, and Gideon has many high cost cards, so Jace shouldn't have a big issue keeping up with a clean board by bringing Harbinger, Voidmage, Anchor to the Aether, and Negate to the fight. Keep your Supports on the bench for this one. Instead of saving for Jaces 2nd ability like usual in Objectives, use his 1st ability to debuff defenders like Orchid so you can kill his creatures by ramming them instead of spending a bounce. Chandra will need a 1st turn Firecraft to take care of Relic Seeker. She should also focus on keeping the board clean while slowly getting creatures out. If Gideon gets Archangel out, you will need at least 2 burn spells to take her out.


Commander Strategy:

Recommended Walkers: Chandra, Liliana

Chandra will want her Thoptor summon cards like Foundry of the Consul and Mommy and Daddy Naalar as well as multiple burn spells. Keep the board clear with burn spells even after summoning enough creatures, as Gideon can give anything flying and defender. Shouldn't be too difficult with the high mana cost of Gideons creatures. Liliana again can ace this with Hangerback Walker by using a death spell on Relic Seeker as well as anything that comes out, and using her ability or a card to discard Hangerback Walker, followed by reviving with Necromatic Summons or Dark Petition.

Hibernum_JC

I just wanted to pop in and say I've been reading your guides and I'm impressed by the amount of work you put in them. A lot of them actually describe strategies we had in mind when the encounters were designed, and it's always super fun to see people figuring out pieces to the puzzles you've built, especially when they manage to break them!

The_Leftist

Hibernum_JC wrote:

I just wanted to pop in and say I've been reading your guides and I'm impressed by the amount of work you put in them. A lot of them actually describe strategies we had in mind when the encounters were designed, and it's always super fun to see people figuring out pieces to the puzzles you've built, especially when they manage to break them!

Thank you! I really appreciate it! And it did take a lot more time than I had originally thought, but once I started I just kept going. Just hoping this helps people out!

Unknown

My strategy for all of them so far have been "play nissa till I get a hand with animists awakening and great aurora. play great aurora. Proceed to ignore their board and win".

I think your strategies are probably more fun though rofl.

ChrisTot

For the summon 3 or less creatures objective in Level 3, by strongest creatures I wondered...what if i ONLY use Boggart Brute? And it was successful

Boggart Brute + Burn Spells + Support Destruction + Life Gain / Mitigation = Profit

These guides are VERY helpful. Mad props for writing them!

fox1342

#1 - crystals.

Jace does this quite well. Bounce tokens, Claustrophobia, Sword to keep hitting the supports (best Jace can do) and get a Mezzler in to slow it all down.

I found Chandra too slow to destroy enough land, and not enough burn to hit the angel before she's huge.

Great Auroa would be wonderful to have though.

Demsu

I really would like to hear what kind of a deck do you need to have in order to beat the first Gideon encounter with Liliana.

Without Sword of the Animist, black has nothing to get rid of those supports. Almost had a vague shot with Smothering Abomination (defender) + first strike (Helm of the Gods) and deathtouch (Gnarlroot Trapper), but then I got Hixused and Bonded for the rest of the game. I feel like there is no way I can beat this encounter without access to another color. Would like to see more encouragement having bit more access to lifedrain to make it a viable alternative win con for black. For example update/redesign some of the Origins commons/uncommons to make more cards useful.

Some of these encounters are nearly impossible for certain colors (like Oblivion Sower for Gideon1 withouth Hixus/Bonds) and need lottery class luck to find the cards that give even a fighting chance.

Meto5000

Demsu wrote:

I really would like to hear what kind of a deck do you need to have in order to beat the first Gideon encounter with Liliana.

Without Sword of the Animist, black has nothing to get rid of those supports. Almost had a vague shot with Smothering Abomination (defender) + first strike (Helm of the Gods) and deathtouch (Gnarlroot Trapper), but then I got Hixused and Bonded for the rest of the game. I feel like there is no way I can beat this encounter without access to another color. Would like to see more encouragement having bit more access to lifedrain to make it a viable alternative win con for black. For example update/redesign some of the Origins commons/uncommons to make more cards useful.

Some of these encounters are nearly impossible for certain colors (like Oblivion Sower for Gideon1 withouth Hixus/Bonds) and need lottery class luck to find the cards that give even a fighting chance.

Cheap remove spells like Grip of Desolation and Unholy Hunger keep the board clear, discard spells like Transgress the Mind, Mire's Malice, Infinite Obliteration and Liliana's first Loyalty ability are great for keeping the opponent's hand empty.

As you said, Sword of the Animist is good at board destruction, but so is ingesting lots and lots of gems. Grip and Transgress both ingest so adding some more creatures, especially Fathom Feeder is a great way to cause board shakeups that lead to cascades (and hopefully support destruction).

If Hixus, Prison Warden gets out there, it's gonna be an uphill battle to defeat unless you can match it (thankfully it only has 1 shield). However, Liliana's second Loyalty ability does pretty good damage at max level. If you're able to match all 5 gems it's equal to 25 damage to your opponent and to all of their creatures. Even if your creatures get locked down, this is a nice alternate win condition provided you can keep your opponents board locked down as well.

If you're looking to get some value out of an otherwise disabled creature, you could also consider Vampiric Rites or Altar's Reap which let you draw cards in exchange for killing off your useless creature - useful if you're looking to draw something specific.

Though this card is typically terrible, Dust Stalker does a nice job of bypassing Hixus since it's returned to your hand after it attacks. If it's your second creature it gets around Supression Bonds as well.

Hope this can help. Liliana definitely has a tough time dealing with a deck like this. Just FYI though, Ob Nixilis (the other black planeswalker) has a super easy time with a deck like this since his third loyalty ability will win the game by itself without ever needing to cast a single creature.

Darenth

Thanks for the tips and walk through. The first Gideon battle has been giving me fits.