boycott trial of zeal

Nalthazar

The most important card in the deck that Froggy is outlining is actually Blightcaster. It is what gives you the opportunity to remove multiple threats for just one card. You pair it with Tezz 2 second ability as Froggy mentioned and you stockpile duplicate supports in your hand in case you need a little extra umph. Underhanded Designs can be nice for gaining life, especially with all of the supports you will be playing. 

Something that has not been mentioned is that cards like Herald of Anguish and Insidious Will are a double edged sword. Creatures with Emblam still trigger if they are discarded from their owner's hand or countered by Insidious Will, so the Herald can have the unintended consequence of granting your opponent free creatures. That being said, having an opponent at 0-1 card in their hand is usually a good recipe for success. 

My major qualm with this version of Tezz 2 is the time to kill and the constant worry that the abundance of Fabricate tokens will crash the game. The longer the match lasts and the more things that are activating on the battlefield, the more likely you are to experience some sort of a crash.

I have been running a different planeswalker with different builds each time through the trials to see what will be the most effective and I have yet to lose a game with any of my walkers or builds. So far, I have found Kiora to be the best choice for kicking butt in this event, with Tezzeret 2 coming in second. If you have the cards to make Dovin work, then he can be reliable too. The Kiora build I run takes advantage of cycling and definitely relies on having a few key mythics. You can still run other versions of the deck, but if you have these cards give it a shot. To keep it simple, once you get Mantle of Webs on Kefnet, the game is over. The deck draws so many cards and is so consistent. Cards like Rikshar's Expertise and Shefet Monitor will help you unleash Kiora's 3rd ability every 1-3 turns, depending on card draws and gem conversion/cascades.

Kiora

Creatures:
Rashmi, Eternities Crafter
Kefnet the Mindful
Shefet Monitor
Greater Sandwurm

Spells:
Rikshar's Expertise
Mantle of Webs
Turn to Frog
Censor
Dissenter's Deliverance

Supports:
New Perspectives

hawkyh1

Froggy said:

Spiritwalker said:

But I'd love to be pointed out a somewhat reliable strategy that does NOT rely on locking down his board in some way or another. All I see is dovin hixus/cast out/cycling. 

Fun meta.

Tezz2:
Herald of Anguish
Syndicate Trafficker 

Blightcaster
Insidious Will
Inderhanded Designs
Claustrophobia
Sphinx's Tutelage 
Trial of Ambition

Final Reward
Day's Undoing (this one actually being the least used and thinking of replacing it out).

There - a different way. My coalition members run very different decks. And yes, we give those tier 3 bosses their fair share of beating. MTGGOLDFISH.

for those willing to try it, tezz2 blightcaster works
well with scrapheap scrounger. maybe it'll improve
things here too?

HH

Thuran

Have also had success on 3.2 without having to resort to many amonkhet shenanigans. Oki kaladesh shenanigans, but still...

Kiora 

Creatures:
Shefet monitor 
Aethersquall ancient
Aethersphere harvester
Metalwork colossus

Spells:
Dissenter's deliverance

Support:
Gonti's aether heart
Dynavolt tower
Aether hub
Era of innovation
Deadlock trap

(on the fence about deadlock trap vs hieroglyphic illumination, and the harvester needs to become an arborback stomper)

Basically allows you to lock down their entire board permanently. The harvester is mostly there to gain life up to 80, and colossus can sometimes be a deadlock trap instead, but serves in case you need some early defenses while you set up the lock. Once you have aethersquall ancient in play, you can pretty much bounce the entire board every single turn for the rest of the game, and the longer time progresses, the more energy you will have. 

Era of innovation refills your hand, and lets you find gonti's aether heart, which gives extra turns, all while dealing 5 damage every single time you match gems. The cyclers ensure consistency and insane mana gains, not to mention everything you do provides energy, so it becomes quite easy to fill up the board. 

Btw, if the board is full on energy, the AI can't cast supports and cannot embalm their creatures  

I admit it is a deck with a lot of rares and a few mythics, but the point is that there are varied strategies you can use if you don't like cycling. 

Kyokudai

madwren said:

Froggy said:

And that my friends, is why I keep saying - DECK BUILDING!!!

I like your deck, Froggy---I have run one very similar--but people struggling for ways to beat the challenge probably don't have Herald of Anguish or Syndicate Trafficker lying around.

Like many PVE events, the challenges are made a lot easier by owning specific mythics. "Deck building" is not necessarily a constructive answer to those individuals who don't have silver bullets in their chamber--and moreover, do not have a way to obtain them.  The difference between someone with Hixus or Herald or Dynavolt compared to someone with Padeem or Yahenni or Verdurous Gearhulk is fairly profound, especially in events like this.

Pretty much what @madwren said.  I'm in silver without the vast collections a lot of you have and no quick way to gain them as a free 2 play.  I can barely compete in the second circle, forget about the third... I've written off the event.  In RaTC I could at least try the third and pull a win on 3.1 if I was lucky enough.  No amount of luck will get me anywhere without the vast collection of specific mythics/rares. 

Seriously... how hard would it have been to scale back for the different tiers.  I have to fight the same nodes with less benefit... At least I think they're the same regardless of tier?

Thuran

At least the new RATC will give new players 3 easily boosters  

James13

Kyokudai said:

Pretty much what @madwren said.  I'm in silver without the vast collections a lot of you have and no quick way to gain them as a free 2 play.  I can barely compete in the second circle, forget about the third... I've written off the event.  In RaTC I could at least try the third and pull a win on 3.1 if I was lucky enough.  No amount of luck will get me anywhere without the vast collection of specific mythics/rares. 

Seriously... how hard would it have been to scale back for the different tiers.  I have to fight the same nodes with less benefit... At least I think they're the same regardless of tier?

FWIW, newbie members of our coalition have cleared 3.1 with cast out and Gideon 1.