OGW: Tyrant of Valakut

ReddMaxx

Ok who has beat this one? I have tried like 30 times with all 5 colors and best I could do was get him down to 160. No way you can beat this when he spams 6 damage to all creatures and your PW every other round.

I tried creature kill, fast red deck, green blocking deck. I even tried a deck with alot of the creatures he has. The problem is he has to many hps. He is going to kill you spamming that 6 points a round and he will get 2 or 3 9+ creatures on the board.

With black and red PW I could keep killing his creatures but with that 6 points damage to all creatures I couldn't do damage back. And if he gets the support that does 4 damage when he matches red you are taking like 10 points ever other turn and then creature damage.

I don't have the cards for a control blue deck but I don't think you can keep him locked down and do 300+ damage.

Anyone beat it or have any ideas?

UPDATE
=====

Ok I finally beat it and with sweet justice. I got a Tyrant of Valakut in a packet and it did the final blow to him. I got lucky to win though. He didn't get any insane cascades and was not able to drop three 8/8 creatures on the second turn like he did 10 times before.

I had a red deck with hellion, hellkite, and Tyrannt in it. I put in scour for creature kill. I got those three creatures and a scour and then proceeded to draw those 3 creature and scour again so I could reinforce them. And to boot I got another hellion and tyrannt to finish him off. They all just came up in a row.

I got a lucky draw and he didn't get mana. If you don't have a lot of rare/mystic this is going to be near impossible. Oh I also pulled a Shrine of the forsaken gods. That card is boss. With 3 extra mana a turn you are getting like 8 mana on a simple 3 gem match. It really allows you to put out big creatures.


Redd

Netatron

I've beaten it and Kozilek with my Kiora deck, which I'm quite lucky to be able to build as a free player:

Harbinger of the Tides
Undergrowth Champion

Animist's Awakening
Crush of Tentacles (this card is way better than I thought it would be)

Fertile Thicket
Yavimaya Coast
Thopter Spy Network
Prism Array
Sphinx's Tutelage
Mirrorpool (Is this not the best card in the game?)


A lucky Ob Nixilis running creature removal should be able to do it too, especially if you have Alhammarret's Archive. 6 damage to all your creatures is a much smaller threat when you don't rely on creatures.

Edit: Realizing my deck's focus on defenders and supports, I replaced Yavimaya Coast with Helm of the Gods to great effect.

buffbeardo

I barely beat him using Gideon Ally but all the credit goes to Hixus Prison Warden. I was fortunate to draw Hixus early and completely stall out Tyrant. Hixus, IMO, is an amazing card now that it only cost 6 mana. That being said, I think the key to this battle is healing while spamming Gideon Ally's second ability.

My deck:

Creatues:
Lantern Scout (R)
Serene Steward (UC)
War Oracle (UC)

Spells:
Roil's Retribution (UC)
Healing Hands (UC)
Smite the Monstrous (C)
Scour from Existence (C)

Supports:
Hixus Prison Warden (M)
Alhammarret's Archive (M)
Pathway Arrows (UC)

Morphis

Won 2nd try(first try did not know the fight) I would have even got the challange "win with 90 or more health" if it was not bugged(healing is "removed" at end of fight).

Deck is nissa
Tactic was do not play anything unless you can setup well

The setup I got was
Nissa renewal into double onslaught and Evo leap

Then just keep evolving
Later I did put down nissa renewal + double gilt
Then evolved that....

Was surprisingly easy, Drana match gave me a MUCH harder time.

Edit: kozilek(last fight) was disappointing :O
Maybe it is just that I used kiora(chose her for the 10 spell objective).
I did not even found a way to get my noyan far till turn 5-6 so I relied on hydra.
Kiora is so cheesy if opponent plays no removal.... XD

shteev

Morphis wrote:

Won 2nd try(first try did not know the fight) I would have even got the challange "win with 90 or more health" if it was not bugged(healing is "removed" at end of fight).

I've just had exactly this problem (beat it playing Kiora with Day's Undoing), and was disappointed I didn't get the gems... I thought this was just a display problem, but it seems you do genuinely lose the life.

shteev

Additionally, I've just entered that level with 11 life, and won it with 54 life... The Game Over screen listed my life total as 0 (as you would expect under this bug), but i was not awarded the acheivement for having <10 life.

[edit] Going back into the level now I see that I have got the achievement, even tho it didn't tell me at the time I had achieved it.

madwren

I won the game with a creatureless Ob Nixilis deck based on hand destruction:


Unholy Hunger
Painful Truths
Read the Bones
Grip of Desolation
Infinite Obliteration
Transgress the Mind
Mire's Malice
Grave Birthing

Caves of Koilos
Llanowar Wastes

Both were close. The first game, I lost with him at 1 life because he topdecked the Tyrant and killed me with 6 damage (I had 5 life)
The second game, I won with 2 life remaining.

paralistalon

Well, I couldn't fall back on Greenwarden of Murasa, so I beat this one with a Jace Thopter Spy Network deck (yeah, I'm pretty reliant on overpowered mythics). I stuck the Thopter Network early, then stalled with mana drain supports like Jace's Sanctum and Sphinx's Tutelage (which combos nicely with Network since it gives you a second draw each turn). This combined with Jace's 3rd ability and going out of my way to not give the Tyrant any red or green matches pretty much completely locked him down, and my Thopter army kept growing bigger than the 6 damage he could do every couple of turns.

TheLaughingMann

All I have left are this guy and Kozilek. Considering his effect and deck setup, makes it seem like he's the worst...until you fight Kozilek. Yeah, I think I hit my end with this event. No way I can manage anything with my current card collection.

nerdstrap

I just beat him with the following

Level 60 Nissa, Sage Animist

3 Mythic, 1 Rare

Creatures
Undergrowth Champion
Zendikar Incarnate
Mina and Denn, Wildborn

Supports
Nissa's Pilgramage
Fertile Thicket
Retreat to Kazandu

Spells
Mantle of Webs
Gather the Pack
Plummet
The Great Aurora

Summary
I ended with an insane draw/gem matching spree where I had a 42/42 Zendikar Incarnate and 22/22 Undergrowth Champion (Gather the Pack is amazing). I cast Plummet every time he put a flier out and only cast The Great Aurora on turn 4ish after he emptied his hand the first time.

shteev

Anyone got the >90 life acheivement yet?

I've been giving it a few goes.. playing Kiora with Days Undoing for broken card draw/mana acceleration/mana denial, Claustrophobia to stop Akoum Firebirds coming straight for me, Orbs of Warding to reduce damage from Tyrant of Valakut (the card), Molten Vortex, and the AI's loyalty ability...

It's probably impossible with the life total bug the way it is, but maybe, just maybe, if you get really lucky, and your opponent gets really unlucky...

xenolinguist

Finally beat this after a lot of VERY frustrating planeswalker hopping / deck rebuilding / getting burned alive by dragonfire. I wanted to post my story here in case someone else is frustrated like me and grumbling "ZOMGWTFBBQ pay to win...." - I was so angry at failing to make my tiny handful of Mythics count for something that I'm actually relieved that the deck that won not only has no Mythics, it only has 1 Rare (which wasn't even critical to the win).

Planeswalker:Gideon, Ally of Zendikar (Level 58)

3 Creatures:
Serene Steward (U)
War Oracle (U)
Enlightened Ascetic (C)

4 Spells:
Encircling Fissure (U)
Swift Reckoning (U)
Smite the Monstrous (U)
Ondu Rising (U)

3 Support:
Pathway Arrows (U)
Valor in Akros (U)
Sword of the Animist (R)

Strategy:
I must admit I got a lot of help from a lucky draw here - cards and mana both. By the second or third turn I had War Oracle as my first creature with Serene Steward as my second and Sword of the Animist in play. Between Reknown, Sword of the Animist, and a couple turns of Lifelink + Serene Steward boosting, the War Oracle was able to survive the first 6-damage-a-palooza and was healing me up after the direct damage too.

As anyone who plays Gideon Ally into the 50's knows, his real power isn't in his cards - it's in spamming 8/8 worth of White Knights every time he gets 9 Loyalty (about every 3rd turn). When a deck works, it's because the cards support that, and this was no exception. By the time Serene Steward got burned up, the Knights were out and got reinforced the turn after. War Oracle kept me alive long enough for the stack of Knights to get pretty large before she took 6 too many damage. By the end of the game, the Knights were alone on the battlefield - which was ok, since they were smacking the Tyrant for something like 34 damage per turn. A couple Ondu Risings kept me from any danger of bleeding out first.

I'm not sure how I feel strategically about the disabling cards in this deck. Encircling Fissue stalled the enemy a couple times, but the one time Swift Reckoning killed a stack of dragons, it was actually because of Pathway Arrows.

Finally, I can't believe it took me this long to realize how good Valor in Akros is with token-heavy decks. My next experiment with it will involve Grovetender Druids and Kor Ally generators. Anybody know where I can get Captain's Gauntlets? It says they're exclusives at the moment.

Morphis

Tyrant is my only objective left.
All other encounters i am at 100%.

The bug make it almost impossible.
Also i do not even have orb of warding so cannot reduce skill incoming damage.

The low health one i got "through bug"(life total being high with healing but at end match was 0).
It displayed not done.
I check back after it is now displayed as done.
Got no crystals from it

Dodecapod

shteev wrote:

Anyone got the >90 life acheivement yet?

I've been giving it a few goes.. playing Kiora with Days Undoing for broken card draw/mana acceleration/mana denial, Claustrophobia to stop Akoum Firebirds coming straight for me, Orbs of Warding to reduce damage from Tyrant of Valakut (the card), Molten Vortex, and the AI's loyalty ability...

It's probably impossible with the life total bug the way it is, but maybe, just maybe, if you get really lucky, and your opponent gets really unlucky...

I tried Kiora for a while too with no success due to the bug, but was eventually able to pull it off with Ob Nixilis (119 hp at level 60) using the following deck:

Orbs of Warding (R)
Graveblade Marauder (R)
Priest of the Blood Rite (R)
Dark Petition (R)
Fleshbag Marauder (U)
Cruel Revival (U)
Shambling Ghoul (C)
Bone Splinters (C)
Mire's Malice (C)
Oblivion Sower (M)

http://imgur.com/kWQWgiA

The essential plan was to drop Orbs of Warding on turn 1 or 2, establish board control with some combination of Shambling Ghoul, Priest of the Blood Rite, Fleshbag Marauder, Bone Splinters, Cruel Revival, and Ob's 2nd ability, attempt to limit ToV's access to PW/red mana and cascades as much as possible, and then gradually build up to Forbidden Knowledge (Ob's 3rd ability) and use that along with some chip damage from creatures to win the game. Ob's first ability should be ignored until after the ultimate has been used (or the situation is looking desperate); being able to remove creatures at will takes priority over everything else (aside from keeping Orbs active) for most of the game.

Assuming a favorable start (i.e. Orbs and 8-10 PW mana within the first 2-3 turns, and no large ToV cascades), this seems to be more or less the ideal hand order to rotate until Forbidden Knowledge is ready:

1. Shambling Ghoul/Priest (try to hold these until step 2 is ready, although occasionally Priest works alone temporarily)
2. Bone Splinters/Fleshbag
3. Reserve creature removal (Cruel Revival, or another step 1 + 2 cycle)
4. Threat (Graveblade Marauder works best)
5. Exile everything else until needed

Regarding specific card choices, most of the rares and the mythic weren't vital, in case anyone is lacking some of them; Orbs of Warding is obviously mandatory, and the Priest/Bone Splinters/Dark Petition interaction can lead to some reasonably efficient stacked Demon tokens, but the other cards were mostly just a random (and partially experimental) mix of my best black cards to fill out the core Orbs + removal plan. Among the lower rarities, cards like Breaker of Armies, Revenant, and Reaver Drone (among many others) would probably work almost as effectively as Graveblade Marauder, Priest, and Sower for finishers alongside Forbidden Knowledge.

On the other hand, for those with access to some of the better black spells, Unholy Hunger, Grip of Desolation, and Ruinous Path would be obvious upgrades over almost any of the card(s) in my deck, and Scour might be worth considering too (though it's a little on the expensive side compared to black creature removal, which is why I went with the zombie/sac options instead). Mire's Malice (or Infinite Obliteration for anyone who has it) and Oblivion Sower were somewhat marginal; forcing discards only helps later in the game to ensure ToV has room in its hand to keep drawing cards and accelerate the clock, and I never even considered playing Oblivion Sower during the successful attempt at the 90+ life objective.

At any rate, good luck to everyone still aiming to beat this level (with or without the other objectives); several of the chapter 2 opponents were difficult without specialized decks, but this one might have been the toughest of the lot without a few very specific options (especially Orbs of Warding and a PW ability win condition) to rely on.

shteev

So close. I got Orbs of Warding down early, which is not easy.. the early game is tough before you have built up loyalty and have some supports in play.

I took 6 damage from an Akoum Firebird, and 2 damage from a Molten Vortex. The Vortex was particularly nasty, as a couple of times I had to take a bad red match over a decent cascade to avoid damage.

Here's my list:
Kiora

Days Undoing
Nissa's Revelation
Natural Connection
Fertile Thicket

Disperse
Anchor to the AEther

Jhessian Thief
Sigiled Starfish

Orbs of Warding
Claustrophobia

Basic strategy is to prevent your opponent from ever casting a spell, by using your first ability and Day's Undoing as regularly as possible. I'd try out Scatter to the Winds if I had it.

shteev

Morphis wrote:

The low health one i got "through bug"(life total being high with healing but at end match was 0).
It displayed not done.
I check back after it is now displayed as done.
Got no crystals from it

I am pretty sure I got my crystals from doing this, it displayed not done at the time, but later on I noticed I had 5 more crystals than I thought I had. I'm not sure when I was awarded them, tho.

majincob

Morphis wrote:

I check back after it is now displayed as done.
Got no crystals from it

I thought so too because it didn't show the reward pop-up, but it did increase my by 5.

I just legit completed the third objective for Tyrant.





The deck works by spamming the board with green gems with Days Undoing to do it again and again, summon 4 Octopuses, bounce whatever they managed to cast, repeat. Basically speed through before the third time Tyrant uses its ability.

shteev

Very well played sir!

I can't believe I'm not playing Animist's Awakening in mine, put it down to a brainfart

Unfortunately I don't have Part the Waterveil, and it looks like those Island tokens helped a lot.

majincob

shteev wrote:

Very well played sir!

I can't believe I'm not playing Animist's Awakening in mine, put it down to a brainfart

Unfortunately I don't have Part the Waterveil, and it looks like those Island tokens helped a lot.

The Waterveil is great for mana acceleration, the islands are also nice but I don't think it's necessary. I often had excess mana. Some suggested replacements:

Swell of Growth, looking through the list I can't believe I missed a gem converter I actually had. Not as strong as the rest though.
Sword of the Animist for more cascades.
Helm of the Gods So that your first set of Octopuses don't die right before you summon your second set.
Shrine of the Forsaken Gods mana ramp w/out cascades.
Pyromancer's Goggles to really go nuts.
If you are concerned about making a giant attacker along with your octopuses swap out Part the Waterveil and Clutch of Currents for Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper and Anchor to the Aether.

Anchor costs 7 though, I can't tell you how big a difference that 1 extra mana is primarily because of talent of the telepath and also because it is 1 more than a basic on-color match and also two off-color matches. However it draws an extra card which is very good for Noyan and does not take up a creature slot (and sometimes waste mana).

You could also run Stratus Walk and Undergrowth Champion

shteev

It's the Akoum Firebird that's the biggest problem. If your opponent gets 2 matches in a row without you draining his mana or casting Day's Undoing, there's a pretty good chance he'll have enough mana to play an 8/8 haste creature. Just one swing with that is generally too much life to lose.

That's why I was testing Claustrophobia, but every single spell you play in your deck that doesn't contribute well to your combo turns slows you down a lot.

majincob

shteev wrote:

It's the Akoum Firebird that's the biggest problem. If your opponent gets 2 matches in a row without you draining his mana or casting Day's Undoing, there's a pretty good chance he'll have enough mana to play an 8/8 haste creature. Just one swing with that is generally too much life to lose.

That's why I was testing Claustrophobia, but every single spell you play in your deck that doesn't contribute well to your combo turns slows you down a lot.

Yeah, they need Silhana Starfletcher - 3 mana: 1/2 reach when it ETB convert 2 gems to green.

But basically I just kept replaying it until he didn't get the firebird before I Octopused.