Planar Bridge Encounter beat me to death by infinite swaps!

KylinTang

Let's see how the Revolt against Consulate 3.2 Planar Bridge kill me in cheating way.

It is the 30th turn for the game. Kiora(my planesswalker) has 60HP and encounter has 16HP. It will only take one more turn for me to beat it.
BUT ......

Cheating mode has been switched.

In summary at first, the infinite chain triggered by: Gonti's Aether Heart (Overload 3: You gain 1 swap), Aetherworks Marvel (Overload 2: Fetch the first card in your library and it gains full mana), Dynavolt Tower (Overload 1: Your opponent takes 5 damage) and other creatures or supports can energize gems. Also as I can imagine, almost every gem has been energized.

The fatal chain is: Overload 3 --> Another swap --> Free card unleashed & 5 damage to me --> Another swap --> Overload 3 .......
In a word: OVERLOAD & MORE SWAP.

I screenshoted every detail (though the language is Simplified Chinese, I think you can find out from the pics), and yes, this encounter has additional 11 turns (total 12 turns) to torture me to death by Dynavolt Tower.

Uncountable energized gems give this encounter unlimited turns to use. Even I have full HP (105HP), it can take me down in 21 turns because every swap it can get at least one more swap from Gonti's Aether Heart.

What a wonderful night for me.

In conclusion, losing an encounter your opponent have to be quite lucky and, on the contrary, winning an encounter you have to be more lucky than it, especially when you meet the freak and powerful encounter!

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For convenience, I translate the card name showed in screenshot below:
贡提的乙太心脏 - Gonti's Aether Heart
乙太厂奇械 - Aetherworks Marvel
涌电塔 - Dynavolt Tower
乙太岩矿工 - Aethergeode Miner
乙太潮巨鲸 - Aethertide Whale
时空渡桥 - Planar Bridge

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Screenshots:

Fiddler

There are many decks where you can set up combos for a one-turn kill. This deck by the UI is just one example. The key to stopping the set up is to clear energy away. I recommend Live Fast. Support clears and creature removal are useful too.

KylinTang

Fiddler wrote:

There are many decks where you can set up combos for a one-turn kill. This deck by the UI is just one example. The key to stopping the set up is to clear energy away. I recommend Live Fast. Support clears and creature removal are useful too.

I understand your meaning. However, not when the opponent has magical creatures and cards. What if this opponent cast two Aeheride Whale when the board already has a Gonti's Aether Heart on it? Trust me, you'll never have a chance to stop it.
This is the first time I lose when fight with Encounter 3.2, because I can take it down to keep the minimum amount of energized gems for preventing this terrible thing happen. Anyway, there is nothing can be done in your opponent's turn, that's the point.....

hawkyh1

Fiddler wrote:

There are many decks where you can set up combos for a one-turn kill. This deck by the UI is just one example. The key to stopping the set up is to clear energy away. I recommend Live Fast. Support clears and creature removal are useful too.

do you mean die young?

HH

hawkyh1

KylinTang wrote:

Fiddler wrote:

There are many decks where you can set up combos for a one-turn kill. This deck by the UI is just one example. The key to stopping the set up is to clear energy away. I recommend Live Fast. Support clears and creature removal are useful too.

I understand your meaning. However, not when the opponent has magical creatures and cards. What if this opponent cast two Aeheride Whale when the board already has a Gonti's Aether Heart on it? Trust me, you'll never have a chance to stop it.
This is the first time I lose when fight with Encounter 3.2, because I can take it down to keep the minimum amount of energized gems for preventing this terrible thing happen. Anyway, there is nothing can be done in your opponent's turn, that's the point.....

could try seeing if void gems help?

HH

Sorin81

I didn't have a problem with Planar Bridge. Guess it was just good luck but I beat it twice with Jace 2. No energy or support removal. Just pumped my creatures up and kept his disabled or turned into cute little frogs.

KylinTang

Sorin81 wrote:

I didn't have a problem with Planar Bridge. Guess it was just good luck but I beat it twice with Jace 2. No energy or support removal. Just pumped my creatures up and kept his disabled or turned into cute little frogs.

Yeah, you definitely are right about it. This is a game all about luck. In my case, sadly, luck is on my opponent's side this time. As I said, this is my first time of losing planar bridge. I used Kiora to beat it more than 4 times (counting previous event), except this one...
And by the way, I like the lovely frog as well

KylinTang

hawkyh1 wrote:

could try seeing if void gems help?
HH

I think energized gems cannot be ingest, am I right?

hawkyh1

KylinTang wrote:

hawkyh1 wrote:

could try seeing if void gems help?
HH

I think energized gems cannot be ingest, am I right?

no idea, but you can't trigger overload 3 as easily with void
gems (ingested from normal gems) dotted all over the gem
board. (at least I believe so in theory)

HH

PastrySpider

Everyone needs to realize that basically there are now additional win conditions in the game. If you get a fully energized board, gonti heart and marvel, you've won. So you need to stop that happening in just the same way you need to stop yourself hitting 0 life.

Good solutions:
1) Energy wipes: harnessed lightning, confiscation coup or die young
2) Support killers: consul crackdown, release the gremlins, detonate
3) Repeated mass gem converting to remove energy: seasons past, animists awakening

The nice thing is that this is generally only a problem for PvE events because the AI isn't good at getting all the cards it needs on the table without crazy mana and lots of life. So you can be prepared in advance.

Mainloop25

PastrySpider is absolutely right. You do need certain cards, but the strategy against these tougher battles is not the usual way you are used to winning. There is a learning curve.

wereotter

I have had no trouble doing this with Dovin Ban. Was able to keep it under control pretty well while using his energy against him.

Decklist:
Empyreal Voyager
Sphinx of the Final Word
Gisela, the Broken Blade
Walking Ballista
Fragmentize
Smite the Monstrous
Imprisoned in the Moon
Saheeli's Artistry
Aether Hub
Hixus, Prison Warden

You can keep his critters under control with Hixus and gunk up his board with the moon token (turn to frog would work for this too, but I don't have it) Fragmentize will keep his supports off the board without potentially triggering cascades that will destroy your Hixus. Mostly you'll use Dovin's first ability to meet the energize requirement as well as get mana and his third emblem to turn the portal's energy against him. In normal matches I use Saheeli's Artistry on Empyreal Voyager to feed Dovin's third ability support, but in this fight I use it on Gisela or Walking Ballista for the lifegain/direct damage.

PastrySpider

Careful using Fragmentize against any Planeswalker who has Heart of Kiran. Most of the time you'll be killing servos in a very expensive way.

THEMAGICkMAN

I just got beaten on Turn 1 by Tezzeret. Fun.

wereotter

PastrySpider wrote:

Careful using Fragmentize against any Planeswalker who has Heart of Kiran. Most of the time you'll be killing servos in a very expensive way.

True. I don't know if this one summons Heart of Kiran. I tend to moon prison and disable his board so if he does, I've never seen it. Fragmentize keeps Dynavolt Tower, Aetherworks Marvel, and Gonti's Heart in check.

Ohboy

If Energized gems are giving you trouble and you can't clear them, consider being proactive and flooding the board with supports / traps / activates / devoid gems.

If you sit back and hope the opponent doesn't chain when you know that's the entire purpose of his deck... Then you really have yourself to blame.

Mainloop25

Ohboy wrote:

If you sit back and hope the opponent doesn't chain when you know that's the entire purpose of his deck... Then you really have yourself to blame.

My thoughts exactly.

Ohboy

THEMAGICkMAN wrote:

I just got beaten on Turn 1 by Tezzeret. Fun.

How is that even possible? Based on his cards, he would need to chain many many 5 matches many times and have the perfect starting hand.

Delnai

THEMAGICkMAN wrote:

I just got beaten on Turn 1 by Tezzeret. Fun.

I hope you screen capped the battle log.

KylinTang

Ohboy wrote:

THEMAGICkMAN wrote:

I just got beaten on Turn 1 by Tezzeret. Fun.

How is that even possible? Based on his cards, he would need to chain many many 5 matches many times and have the perfect starting hand.

Nothing is impossible in MTGPQ. Bad luck, I guess, just like me.

KylinTang

Ohboy wrote:

If Energized gems are giving you trouble and you can't clear them, consider being proactive and flooding the board with supports / traps / activates / devoid gems.

If you sit back and hope the opponent doesn't chain when you know that's the entire purpose of his deck... Then you really have yourself to blame.

fully preprared deck and strategy is important yeah, however, nothing will stop your opponent if it can get extra swap again and again. As I said, you cannot do anything in your opponent's turn.

Today I fight with Planar Bridge again and got an easy win. No Gonti things bothered me, and I won with full HP.

The post I put here is just for a reference.