Saheeli's troll challenge

wereotter

Having a challenging encounter is fine and can be fun. Having an encounter where your opponent can literally kill you with a 40/40 haste double striker on turn two, or where she can gain infinite swaps with a Dynavolt Tower, Panharmonicon, Gonti's Aether Heart combo, not so much.

Plus to end it all off, one pack of cards as a reward for finally getting past her and energizing enough gems seems hardly worth the effort. Great example of an event that the reward isn't worth it for those who can achieve it, and completely inaccessible for those who would want it.

Mainloop25

Lol. I beg to differ. I liked the challenge of figuring out how to defeat her while simultaneously helping her beat me(by energizing gems). It took me a few tries. It was actually good to see how OP some of those new cards are (OMG Lightning Runner, anyone??) I wish the reward was something better than a booster, though. I'll give you that.

It was fun to me, but only because we have an unlimited number of tries at it.

Feyda

Yes because it is fun to watcher her in ONE turn suddenly energize the entire board then loop gontis heart for 10 mintures straight to kill you with dynavolt paper cuts..... ONE turn.

Furks

I haven't beaten her, but I enjoy the challenge. That said, I think the final reward should be crystals, with the card pack as an earlier reward.

If you're new at the game, you basically have 0 chance of getting the card pack. But that's exactly the scenario where you need random packs the most. While crystals are always valuable, regardless of how new you are to the game.

wereotter

Furks wrote:

I haven't beaten her, but I enjoy the challenge. That said, I think the final reward should be crystals, with the card pack as an earlier reward.

If you're new at the game, you basically have 0 chance of getting the card pack. But that's exactly the scenario where you need random packs the most. While crystals are always valuable, regardless of how new you are to the game.

Agreed. Or they could reward a card that was a placement exclusive mythic to those who make full progression. I doubt many would complain if those who complete it 100% got a Dynavolt Tower or Aetherworks Marvel as compensation for a high difficulty encounter. And then move the pack down to the second level reward so those who need it most can get it.

Theros

The raward does not worth the chalenge indeed.

MTG_Mage

I enjoy a challenge to, especially when you get unlimited tries at it
However, being taken from full health and a dominant board position to 0 HP in one attack due to getting 40+ extra swaps(!) from Gonti's Aether Heart is unfair and annoying.
This has happened like 5 tries in a row, and the creatures get to over over 100 power each

Gonti's Aether Heart MUST be nerfed. A viable fix for it would be if it loses a shield every time you gain an extra swap from it (and increase its cost too). That would keep it to 3 swaps max per casting.

span_argoman

There's support removal in three colours (4 if you count Anguished Unmaking but that damages you). There are spells which drain all Energize from the board (Confiscation Coup, Harnessed Lightning, Die Young).

Your PvE deck can be tailored to the challenge unlike PvP decks.

wereotter

span_argoman wrote:

There's support removal in three colours (4 if you count Anguished Unmaking but that damages you). There are spells which drain all Energize from the board (Confiscation Coup, Harnessed Lightning, Die Young).

Your PvE deck can be tailored to the challenge unlike PvP decks.

Yes but other PVE encounters can't go infinite on turn 3, and support removal is only as effective as your ability to consistently draw it considering you can't select which support to destroy.

Tried it many times with Sarkhan to use his kill spells, support removal, harnessed lightning, and die young and still got utterly destroyed from exactly they type of scenarios described. Go from a solid board and good position to her summoning two whales and a lightning runner then powering it up with Saheeli's artistry and killing me in one turn with a 30/30 haste double strike.

The challenge isn't a problem, but after all the effort, one pack of cards feels like they're trolling us. The reward is best for those who will never be able to obtain it.

Schlemoc

Ill be honest, my first impression was like holy hell is this ridiculous. However, i was able to overcome her in pretty short order with some tweaks to my dovin control deck. All in all it took maybe 5 tries. I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge. Now, if i had limited tries, id be rage quitting too. Part of this is the challenge.

I do agree that the reward does not anywhere compensate for the skills to beat it, let alone the card sets one may need. The final rewards should absolutely be crysyals,event specific rares, or mythics. The card packs need to be more easily accessible for lower level players. If we keep making new cards impossible to gather for new players, the player base will dwindle and die. Hardly the outcome any of us would want from what i have read.

orgazmo

This just highlights how broken Gonti's Heart is. Its really kinda ridiculous really. I also would be fine with this challenge if you didn't need to get 100% on all nodes to get a single card pack.

I can win pretty easily, but I can't seem to win while also trying to generate 20 energize without letting Gonti's Heart take the game over.

SeditiousCanary

I bet her first try, all ribbons, and ended at full health running this Dovin build:

Creatures:
Electrostatic Pummeler
Lone Rider
Solemn Recruit

Spells:
Anchor to the Aether
Imprisoned In The Moon

Supports:
Decoction Module
Era of Innovation
Hixus, Prison Warden
Sphinx's Tutelage
Thopter Spy Network

Heart and Dyno were both out, but it didn't matter at all. I was gaining about 40 life a turn. It was inevitability once I dropped Aether Innovation, and had two Hixus, Prison Warden in play.

wereotter

SeditiousCanary wrote:

I bet her first try, all ribbons, and ended at full health running this Dovin build:

Creatures:
Electrostatic Pummeler
Lone Rider
Solemn Recruit

Spells:
Anchor to the Aether
Imprisoned In The Moon

Supports:
Decoction Module
Era of Innovation
Hixus, Prison Warden
Sphinx's Tutelage
Thopter Spy Network

Heart and Dyno were both out, but it didn't matter at all. I was gaining about 40 life a turn. It was inevitability once I dropped Aether Innovation, and had two Hixus, Prison Warden in play.

Sounds like you got lucky she didn't unleash the gremlins on your supports.

SeditiousCanary

wereotter wrote:

SeditiousCanary wrote:

I bet her first try, all ribbons, and ended at full health running this Dovin build:

Supports:
Decoction Module
Era of Innovation
Hixus, Prison Warden
Sphinx's Tutelage
Thopter Spy Network

Sounds like you got lucky she didn't unleash the gremlins on your supports.

She did. Three times by my count. Never hit Hixus, Prison Warden. Was drawing up to six every turn, so it was easy to replay anything that got killed.

PastrySpider

On events like this where you can try multiple times at no risk, these should be the hardest challenges. I thought this one was interesting and well designed (lightning runner is nasty), though I do think that overall the developers may be overusing gonti aether heart in their hardest decks.

Magog

PastrySpider wrote:

the developers may be overusing gonti aether heart in their hardest decks.

And in turn, I wonder if this says something about the quality of the cards in AER...

bk1234

I beat these on the first try without even changing any cards in my decks Ob, Dovin, Aj (all NOP decks), N2 (IF deck / turn 3)-- all objectives and in that order.

I don't understand what the complaint is.

*brag post*

Schlemoc

I agree about the over abuse of gontis. It definitely needs reworked in some format. The inclusion of losing shields would be an ideal start.

I used confiscation coup to steal lightnin runner. Thats how i energized the board. There are other ways to bring that card over. Its my favorite creature in my nahiri deck,so i knew its potential. Lost once to a whale being boosted massively by lightning runner... that was annoying.

Its definitely doable with some thought,even if you dont have a hixus.

Stormcrow

PastrySpider wrote:

the developers may be overusing gonti aether heart in their hardest decks.

I'm not sure if maybe the devs think seeing how nasty it is will inspire us to go chase it in packs...but I gotta tell you, nothing inspires me less than letting the AI take so many turns that my phone goes into sleep mode while I'm waiting for a turn.

orgazmo

Deck for Kiora:

Nissa's Pilgrimage
Aether Hub
Saheeli's Artistry
Altered Ego
Emrakul, the Promised Squid
Chilling Grasp
Plummet
Confiscation Coup
Heron's Grace Champion
Scour From Existence

Try to get Heron's Grace out as quickly as possible. The AI has no removal, so just put all your pump into Heron's Grace (which can be crazy with Saheeli's Artistry) and just wait to grab lightning runner. I actually won 4 times in a row with 100% health and in those 4 games the AI never cast Lightning Runner (or the whale only once), so no 20 energize. The first game that LR comes out, you will win. Use Chilling Grasp when the board is energized like mad to keep the looped turns from killing you in one round. Confiscation Coup can also be used to clear the board of energy and more than once I killed my own Emrakul or Whale to snatch another enemy creature with the sole purpose of removing energy from Gonti's Ridiculous Heart.

Blue is the only way I could energize 20. If you have Dovin, I suspect hes pretty boss on this boss. I should have tried N2 in hindsight. Not sure why I didnt as I actually like that PW.

Charmy_004

I'm a FtP player, so I can't build *any* of the decks listed. I only have 16 Mythics total, despite playing for more than a year.

Yeah.. drop rates suck ._.

Anyway, after much pain and consternation, I finally won with this Ajani deck:

Consulate Surveillance (For the objective ONLY)
Jori En, Ruin Diver (fetch 2x cards per turn to draw the 5x Consulate Surveillance I need to get objective)
Inner Struggle
Gisela, the Broken Blade
Smite the Monstrous
Release the Gremlins
Iona's Blessing
Demolish
Canopy Vista (For mana. I don't have Shrine of Forgotten Gods ._.)
Roil Sprout

Strategy - Stall with tons of 'cheapish' removal and stalling cards. Destroy all the insane supports with extreme prejudice using Demolish and Gremlins.

Summon Gisela, give her Iona's to tank and give tons of life gain.

Stall until 5x Consulate is drawn. On my winning run, I had to Disable my Gisela to keep her from killing Saheeli Rai for quite a few turns.

On another run I might put some more energize cards in. I have very few Kaladesh/Aether rares and mythics, so Energize objectives are a PITA for me.