Did noxious gearhulk node 3.3 get harder?

orgazmo

Anyone else notice this node is now a lot harder? I actually lost on it more than once. It seems like he casts sovereign skyship and eliminate the competition every round. I am also having a streak of bad mana in decks I've never had that problem in, so I'm sure that doesn't help.

Nitymp

A few showdowns ago Metalwork Colossus was added to the deck and also the mana gains were increased.

bk1234

Manna gains were significantly increased for several levels a few weeks ago. In addition, many of us have noticed that things are being priorized differently on many of the levels. This one for instance is dropping lost legacy more often.

wereotter

I noticed this, though now it feels to me like Noxious Gearhulk is no longer the hardest battle. Now Torrential Gearhulk is the one that really gives me a headache.

Volrak

bken1234 wrote:

This one for instance is dropping lost legacy more often.

I've noticed this, but the increased mana gains would be enough to cause any card, including LL, to be played more often than previously. I haven't seen evidence of card priority changes.

buscemi

Volrak wrote:

bken1234 wrote:

This one for instance is dropping lost legacy more often.

I've noticed this, but the increased mana gains would be enough to cause any card, including LL, to be played more often than previously. I haven't seen evidence of card priority changes.

Agreed. When I've seen a Lost Legacy recently on this level it's usually because the AI has cast most or all of the cards in it's hand.

madwren

I've played the same decks against him on two accounts for several events running, and I've definitely noticed that he's generating a huge board presence faster than usual. We're talking three creatures out by turn 4 or 5 in every game thus far this event.

This could be just randomness, or it could be that they stacked his opening draws, or changed the priority algorithm. Regardless, it's definitely been noticeable.

RhysMarkov

It definitely seems the difficulty on it has spiked. I don't remember any prior FS in which I haven't beat the Noxious Gearhulk at least once. This time? Not a single match. And with the timer refresh being as long as it is, it's become... taxing... to try and incorporate different strategies.

Tried a lockdown blue/white. No luck.

Red/black burn/discard? Again, no luck.

Even broke down and put the Jace2 control back together, as that's what got me through before. Still, nothing. The ramp and destruction it's got going on now is like a bus you just can't get out from in front of haha

RhysMarkov

In retrospect, I just realized how close "ramp and destruction" is to "rampant destruction"... pun wasn't intended, but i'll take it.

Mainloop25

My same strategy works regardless, but I do notice it gets creatures out quicker. Choke out his black mana and you'll do better.

DumasAG

definitely don't feel like he's any harder. But I also switched to using Dovin Baan for him this event because I finally got a deadlock trap, and I basically just cruised against Nox by couping all his boomships, trapping his first creature, and dropped an L3 support to make my stolen ships VERY large...

RhysMarkov

Maybe I'll give Dovin another rework and try the lockdown again. No Deadlock trap, but maybe old school retreat to emeria and kor entangler will suffice.

orgazmo

madwren wrote:

I've played the same decks against him on two accounts for several events running, and I've definitely noticed that he's generating a huge board presence faster than usual. We're talking three creatures out by turn 4 or 5 in every game thus far this event.

This could be just randomness, or it could be that they stacked his opening draws, or changed the priority algorithm. Regardless, it's definitely been noticeable.

This is what I noticed also. In 3 turns he had out 2x Consul Flagships for 24/24 and an additional 2x Multiform Wanderer for 12/12. My Jace2 deck really doesnt lose... ever... in gold... but without getting lucky on the draw, its really hard to stop 36/36 worth of damage on the 2nd and 3rd turns (the flying is what killed me).

Anyway, I just switched it up and played my lifegain/destroy Sorin deck and walked through. It would just be nice to know things change from event to event because its already such a huge PITA switching out decks all the time.

madwren

orgazmo wrote:

madwren wrote:

I've played the same decks against him on two accounts for several events running, and I've definitely noticed that he's generating a huge board presence faster than usual. We're talking three creatures out by turn 4 or 5 in every game thus far this event.

This could be just randomness, or it could be that they stacked his opening draws, or changed the priority algorithm. Regardless, it's definitely been noticeable.

This is what I noticed also. In 3 turns he had out 2x Consul Flagships for 24/24 and an additional 2x Multiform Wanderer for 12/12. My Jace2 deck really doesnt lose... ever... in gold... but without getting lucky on the draw, its really hard to stop 36/36 worth of damage on the 2nd and 3rd turns (the flying is what killed me).

Anyway, I just switched it up and played my lifegain/destroy Sorin deck and walked through. It would just be nice to know things change from event to event because its already such a huge PITA switching out decks all the time.

To be fair, changing things up does catch those of us who have been sleepwalking through it for several weeks now. I wish the solution would just be to retire the event and move to new, exciting ones, though!

Nothguorb

The fact that he casts lost legacy now makes it way easier with creatureless Ob deck. One round I cast lost legacy into mirrorpool into another lost legacy. To which his response was to cast yet another lost legacy. 144 damage for him in one turn

Steeme

I use Koth with Olivia and friends, this time including Avaricious Dragon. I rely on Shrine, Drownyard, and Fevered Visions as supports and shoot for playing 4 of them. My deck has no spells as I use it to fulfill some of the other match objectives with no spells cast.

I did notice that he was building a huge board presence very quickly this time around. In the past I've been able to just overpower him with flying + lifelink + Koth's 3rd ability and it's enough, but this time I actually had to board wipe him using Koth's second ability and sacrifice some of my own creatures in the process. In the end it actually gave me time to play 8 supports so I was happy with a full victory (I usually skip the third objective).

Magog

wereotter wrote:

I noticed this, though now it feels to me like Noxious Gearhulk is no longer the hardest battle. Now Torrential Gearhulk is the one that really gives me a headache.

Ditto, lost to it for the first time this weekend. Was rather surprised.

Truth be told, I didn't notice any changes in Noxious Gearhulk other than a couple more boomships than normal. That said, I was running an L2 zombie deck and was usually well stocked with kill spells, so creature destruction didn't really bother me too much.

morgue427

really noxious is one of the easier ones for me. i change to a tuned jace 2 cast insidious as much as possible and mana steals when i can rest really wont hurt him with the crazy levels of mana gain he gets let the extra fill creatures ( the black blue life linker, and smugglers copter are what i use) and race to get his last ability up and running then have fun. beat he 2 this last challenge and several times previous 2 or 3 times. the rest do seem harder though had a **** of a time on the one before noxious last several times

use imprision on the ships and any construct, what is a little more mana gain to him really?

Astralwind

Just to share my Jace2 which was able to beat it.

Nibil of Frost
Thing in the Ice
Spatial Contortion
Imprisoned In the Moon
Artificer's Ephiphany
Coastal Discovery
Scatter to the Winds
Insidious Will
Sphinx's Tutelage
Brain Jar/Startled Awake

I didn't try with Startled Awake as I have just gotten this card recently.
But result should be the same or even better.
The way to go about it is to cast Thing in the Ice, cast those spells and return all creatures Noxious Gearhulk throws out.
Save a Spatial Contortion for an instant transform.
Sphinx's Tutelage to increase mana cost of first card and when you think the card will be casted inevitably, throw out an Insidious Will/Scatter to the Winds to negate it.
Coastal Discovery and Artificer's Ephiphany to keep your spells and Thing in the Ice coming in. Nibil of Frost is to help to buy time and for offense.
Once you can dish out level 3 ability, victory is usually assured.
To add on to the fun, you can even imprisoned your own creatures to buff up moon for auto main gain as it grows bigger per card draw. That should speed up the pace.

Chavez303

I've beaten him handily every time with my Lil2 Zombie deck.

Prized Amalgam
Noosegraf Mob
Fleshbag Maurader
Olivia, Mobilized for war
Graf Harvest
Oath of Liliana
Shamble Back
Ruinous Path
Grip of Desolation
Behold the Beyond

Its pretty much nuke whatever he puts down as soon as it hits. If I can't, the amalgam takes the hit and i use either a token or one of my other zombies to bring him back. Usually by the end i'm able to generate a 50/50+ zombie that ends the game fast.

One thing i've noticed is that in getting Lost legacy, i haven't seen any spot removal from him lately.

morgue427

yeah i have used imprison on my own creatures before and with his health pool it was crazy getting 40+ mana for a few turns lol