Story Mode

Overview

This is a walkthrough about completing the Story Mode.Please rate the guide so more people can see it.

General Information

Welcome to my story mode guide for Magic Duels.

I will use this section to provide some more information and how to use the guide.

Decks:
Your deck for each planeswalker’s story changes a little after the first duel.
It gets more powerful, so you will probably see some cards at duel 2,3,4 and 5 you never saw before in your deck.

Mulligan or Restart:
When I say mulligan or restart for some specific cards:
It doesn’t mean you have to get all of them to win the duel. It’s meant as a guideline, but if it’s a hard duel you should try getting more of those cards in hand before playing it.
In some duels you don’t have many options, so if you follow my suggestions, it should make the match easier.

Tutorial:
Gideon’s campaign is more like a tutorial and you get a specific hand with no option for mulligan, that’s the reason I write the guide for his campaign almost step by step. It is for new players.
The rest of the guide is as detailed as possible and assumes you know some of the basics.

How to use:
The guide is written in a way to teach you.
So when you learn some things from duel 1 you can use them even in duel 4.
Sometimes I write tactics that could be obvious for the same reason.

Visions of Emrakul (spoiler if you didn’t play this yet):
I’d really like to know if some found the way to win this match with damage (with or without the guide).
When I played this duel the first time, I lost and when I replayed it the second time, I won with damage. I didn’t know you are not supposed to win this way. Now I know I got very lucky.

Difficulty:
I played all story mode matches at least 5 times, and some more than 10, to make sure my instructions work. I found the story mode very interesting while writing the guide.
Some matches can be very hard. While it can seem luck based at first, your decks are not very powerful so you learn how to play Magic, how to mulligan, and learn the important cards of your deck. So, in the end I think it’s a good design.

Cinematics
To rewatch the cinematics you have to go to Help & Options-Settings-Video Gallery.

I will add more notes in this section if needed.

Gideon Jura / Kytheon Iora

Duel 1
Akroan Guards

Play all creatures available every turn prioritizing your most powerful ones and those with flying.
Attack with all every turn.

Duel 2
Warden Hixus

Play all creatures available every turn prioritizing your most powerful ones and those with flying.
Attack with all every turn.
Play Glorious Charge when you have more creatures than opponent or there’s opportunity to win with the bonus it provides, but you can win without it too.

Duel 3
Harpies

Turn 1:
Play Elite Vanguard.
Turn 2:
Play Oreskos Swiftclaw. Attack with Elite Vanguard.
He will probably play Fleshmad Steed.
Turn 3:
Attack with Elite Vanguard and he will block.
Play Eagle of the Watch.
He will probably play Gloomwidow (note this creature can only block flying creatures)
Turn 4:
Attack with Oreskos Swiftclaw.

Rest of the match:
Attack with flying creatures when he can’t block them (and play all creatures you can until he has no cards in hand). You’ll end up with 7-10 creatures each.
Attack with all when you have more than him (he will have to block) and play Glorious Charge when he blocks.
You can trade some creatures earlier but generally you will win with your flying creatures, especially Skyspear Cavalry(double strike).

Duel 4
Cyclops

First few turns:
Do not attack until you have Great Hart on the battlefield and Honor of the Pure and Glorious Charge in hand. (If he attacks with all at a point you can trade if you want)

Rest of the match:
Play Oreskos Swiftclaw and Honor of the Pure. Attack with Eagle of the Watch.
On his turn he will attack. Block Bloodrock Cyclops with Great Hart.
Attack with all using Glorious Charge and finish him in a few more turns.

Duel 5
Erebos’ s Titan

Turn 1:
Play Elite Vanguard.
Turn 2:
Play Oreskos Swiftclaw. Attack with Elite Vanguard.
He will play Brain Maggot exiling your Banisher Priest.
Turn 3:
Play Honor of the Pure. Attack with All.

Rest of the match:
He will sometimes play Quag Sickness and later Lash of the Whip. Ignore his creatures.
Play Supply-Line Cranes giving the counter to itself. Win the next few turns with it or other flying creatures. Usually he won’t be able to kill Supply-Line Cranes.

Note:
You have to stop attacking with non-flying creatures when he plays Grim Guardian because there is a known bug when he tries to block with multiple creatures, the game crashes.

Jace Beleren

Duel 1
Mage-Ring Bullies

Mulligan and or Restart for Separatist Voidmage and Phantasmal Dragon
A good hand is Azure Mage , Separatist Voidmage , Phantasmal Dragon and Islandx3-4 Nimbus of the Isles is good to keep too.

Play Separatist Voidmage when he has a creature to use his ability to turn it back to his hand.
(Use it on his best creature preferably one without haste. Best target most times is Furnace Whelp)

Play Phantasmal Dragon and any other creatures when possible to have many blockers.
He’ll most probably kill Phantasmal Dragon with Volcanic Geyser or Inferno Fist.

Defend, draw cards when you can, lower his HP with Phantom Warrior until you can win.
If game goes like this Turn the Tide can save you some times and let you win next turn.

Don’t be scared when you have low HP, at this point he probably won’t have something to finish you.

Tips about some of your cards:
Nimbus of the Isles and Phantasmal Dragon can be very important in defence if he manages to have many flying creatures.
Separatist Voidmage draws make the match easier.
A Turn the Tide at the right moment can turn the tide to your favor :).
Phantom Warrior can’t be blocked.
Azure Mage can draw you cards. Sometimes a draw would help more for next turn than play another creature this turn.

Tips about some of your opponent’s cards:
Ashmouth Hound is 2/1 but works like 3/1 in most fights.
Always block and kill Reckless Brute if possible.

Extra info – Some of the magic of Magic the Gathering:
Volcanic Geyser kills Phantasmal Dragon with just 2 mana(0 damage) because
Phantasmal Dragon needs only to be targeted to die. Same with Inferno Fist, 2 damage wouldn’t kill a 5/5 creature but Phantasmal Dragon dies before the damage touches it.
The logic is it is an illusion and when it is exposed as such it vanishes. 🙂
Not all illusions in the game have this ability though.

Duel 2
Alhammarret

Mulligan and or Restart for Psychic Spiral. If you can have Cancel too it’s better but might not be needed.

He will try to win mostly by destroying your deck(milling) [In MTG if you have to draw a card while your deck is empty you lose the game]
Or he will try to win with Goliath Sphinx or both.

You ignore everything he plays most of the time and let him mill you enough until you have enough cards in graveyard to play Psychic Spiral and destroy his deck in a single move to win.

Attack when possible, especially if he played Riddlekeeper so you get milled faster.
Use Cancel if he tries to play Goliath Sphinx or if he tries to counter Psychic Spiral
(most of the time he will have already used his Clash of Wills cards before).
You could always just block Goliath Sphinx 1-2 times.

If you want to win with damage, countering Goliath Sphinx and/or Sphinx’s Tutelage is the key. You attack when possible and mostly with Phantom Warrior.

Duel 3
Trovian Separatists

This is mostly a survival match.
Mulligan for Sphinx’s Tutelage , Cancel Separatist Voidmage and low mana-cost creatures (mostly Azure Mage to take the pressure off in the first turns).

Try to always have blockers to survive, while having Sphinx’s Tutelage on board(play it as soon as you can).
He will destroy many of your creatures with spells and some times all creatures on board with Mutilate.

Try to use the ability of Separatist Voidmage on Dusk Urchins and his most powerful creatures.

If possible Cancel his NIghtmare and or his Squelching Leeches.

If he plays Mind Rot early save what you can of course but you will probably need to restart.
I played a game where he played Squelching Leeches early and then MInd Rot and lost.

If you manage to survive while having Sphinx’s Tutelage on board, you will win eventually by destroying his deck.
You can probably also win with damage if you are lucky(I would say very lucky).
You can also lose sometimes whatever you do if you are unlucky.
The opponent has a very powerful deck.

I think they designed this match(or most of Jace’s campaign) this way so you can learn how to win with milling.

Don’t be afraid to take damage as long as you can survive. Block smartly and trade when possible especially Dusk Urchins(before it has more than 1 -1-1 counter) and his more powerful creatures.

Duel 4
Ampryn Core Soldiers

Mulligan for Jace’ s Phantasm , Phantasmal Dragon , Cancel and Azure Mage.
Usually this match is very easy. You play creatures to defend, attack with flying creatures, Cancel his Angel’ s Mercy if you can to win faster.

He will use Show of Valor and Glorious Charge some times, so be careful not to block with your only Phantasmal Dragon when it seems you’ll kill his creature for free.

You can always win with destroying his deck with Sphinx’s Tutelage and attacking with 5/5 Jace’ s Phantasms if you want to play a slower game.

Duel 5
Alhammarret – Mind Games

Follow same tactic as Duel 2.
Mulligan and or Restart for Psychic Spiral. If you can have Cancel too it’s better but might not be needed.
Be careful to play Psychic Spiral when he can’t counter it. He has more counterspells this time.

You can also Mulligan or Restart for Sphinx’s Tutelagex2 and Traumatize for more fun.

You can win with damage(he has 40HP) especially if you play Traumatize and counter some of his spells, because he won’t have many things to play after a while.

Liliana Vess

Duel 1
Josu the Cursed

Mulligan or Restart for Black Cat and Altar’ s Reep and/or Bone Splinters and/or
Gravedigger or Cruel Revival.
You block with Black Cat or sacrifice Black Cat to make him discard a random card whenever possible.
Play Gravedigger or Cruel Revival and repeat the process until he has no cards in hand.

Shambling Goblin is useful to kill his other creatures. Play your other creatures, kill his creatures with Bone Splinters and Cruel Revival , attack when you can and win.

He will kill some of your creatures with Last Kiss

Consume Spirit is his most dangerous spell. Probably the only way you can lose.

Play this duel many times to see Nantuko Husk‘s combos with Black Cat Shambling Goblin and Vengeful Dead. Liliana’s deck has many combos.

You will learn a lot about black decks on most of Liliana’s campaign.

Duel 2
Hermit Witch

Same tactic as Duel 1 about Black Cat. Mulligan for Shambling Goblins and Shambling Ghoul and Cruel Revival.
I find that having more creatures is more important in this match.
Try to play a creature every turn to stall the game until you have your spells also and win in the end. Shambling Ghoul doesn’t look like much but it will win you the game.

A good hand I had even though just 2 lands was Shambling Ghoul , Shambling Goblin , Black Catx2 Gravedigger.
A hand with Cruel Revivalx2 , 2 creatures and lands is good too.

Play aggressively especially in the early turns so he maybe uses Giant Growth on defense.
Kill Festerhide Boar Gravetiller Wurm Orchard Spirit Darkthicket Wolf with a spell as soon as you can.

Use Rise from the Grave if possible to get a powerful creature from opponent’s graveyard(best choice is Gravetiller Wurm and Somberwald Spider or a useful creature like Gravedigger(its ability is used even if he enters the battlefield this way) from yours.

Notes:
If he manages to play Prey Upon before you can have many creatures most times you lose.
You can attack with Shambling Goblin and some times force him to sacrifice Dawntreader Elk or use Darkthicket Wolf‘s ability and waste mana.
You can only block Orchard Spirit with Carrion Crow (and Somberwald Spider if you can get it with Rise from the Grave)
Try to not mistake Shamblin Goblin for Shambling Ghoul 🙂

Duel 3
Archangel

This should be easy most times.
Mulligan or Restart for Black Cat , Altar’ s Reep , another creature and/or Bone Splinters and/or Cruel Revival.
Use the Black Cat tactic as before.
He will exile some of your creatures with Banisher Priests. They come back when you kill it.
He might play Enshrouding Mist to protect his attacking or blocking creature.
He might play Angelic Edict and Pacifism to neutralize some of your creatures.
When he plays Shepherd of the Lost try to destroy it that turn or next turn.
Finish him with attacks and Corrupt (or kill a creature with it if you really need the HP or no other way) , one of the most powerful spells.

Duel 4
Raven Man

Mulligan or Restart for Black Cat , Butcher Ghoul (or other same cost creature) , Bone Splinters and/or Cruel Revival. If Leechridden Swamp is one of your lands even better.
Every time I play this I win faster with Leechridden Swamp than without it.

Kill Mindshrieker as soon as possible with Bone Splinters hopefully with a discard from Black Cat or triggering Buther Ghoul‘s undying.
If you don’t kill it, you might have very powerful Soulless one after a while but it’s safer to kill it early because it can become very dangerous.

His Screeching Buzzard is similar to Black Cat but you choose what to discard so no real danger.

Attack every turn and Use Leechridden Swamp‘s ability when possible.

Play Soulless One and Corrupt to finish him if/when you have them.

He could play Unsummon some times but that won’t save him.

Kill Murder of Crows to stop him from drawing.

Be ready to destroy one of your own creatures if he plays Mind Control. Altar’s Reap would be best if possible when he tries to enchant it so he won’t be able to get control of your creature at all.

Duel 5
Griselbrand Razaketh Belzenlok Kothophed

At this point your deck is quite powerful.
You should have no trouble winning if you know what the cards do.
Griselbrand 8HP , Razaketh 10HP , Belzenlok 10HP , Kothophed 12HP
Just remember that when you kill the first boss, the second spawns with full HP no matter how much damage you dealt, and so on.
They will draw 3 cards (you too) but the deck is the same(never mind the animation).

Mulligan or Restart for Black Cat and Lord of the Undead and Bone Splinters
Grave Titan , Soulless One are a big bonus.
Leechridden Swamp always helps.

Most times he will play Desecration Demon when possible.
Kill it with Bone Splinters, sacrificing Black Cat.
If you can’t or he plays a second one, keep sacrificing different creatures when possible but save Lord of the Undead so you can bring them back. Again don’t be afraid to take damage.

You will try to have a Souless One on board always and attack with it when possible. It will be so powerful the opponent will have to block him every time.
If you can play Grave Titan you most probably win easily.

Kill Indulgent Tormentor Harvester of Souls and Rune-Scarred Demon as soon as possible if he plays them.

Keep in mind when attacking that Typhoid Rats have the death touch ability.
His other creatures are nothing to worry about.

MInd Mind Rot. If you are not careful or unlucky it can lose you the game.
He will play Murder , Cruel Edict and or Shadowborn Demon to kill a creature when he has it, hopefully before you play an important creature.

Play Rise from the Grave to get one of his huge demons if possible.
Again, play Corrupt when needed if you have it.

One time I played he sacrificed Desecration Demon to play Altar’s Reap … 😛

Chandra Nalaar

Duel 1
Kaladesh Artificers

This match can be very hard but the key is to destroy opponent’s artifacts.

Mulligan or Restart for Young Pyromancer , Fiery Impulse and/or Flames of the Firebrand If you can get 2xFiery Impulse it will start to feel easy.

Play Young Pyromancer first then start killing his artifacts (Thopters)
This way his Reclusive Artificer(can do damage to your creature depending on how many artifacts he controls) will be useless most of the time, while at the same time Young Pyromancer will summon for you many creatures to have in defense (1/1 Elementals).
His Aeronaut Tinkerer will become useless in a way too.(no flying)

Throughout the game he will play creatures like Thopter Engineer and Ghirapur Gearcrafter to summon thopters(1/1 artifact creatures with flying)
Keep destroying them with spells with your other creatures on defense. Attack with Chandra’ s Phoenix and Firefiend Elemental if you draw them.
Don’t try to save Ravaging Blaze and other spells for “higher value” targets. The highest value targets in this match are the thopters.

Notes:
If Chandra’ s Phoenix is dead it returns to your hand when you damage opponent with a red spell or planeswalker.
His Sell-Sword Brute deals 2 damage to him when it dies.
While blocking he will use Kindled Fury when possible to kill an attacking creature you have without losing his. This is no problem if you have an army of 1/1 elementals.

Duel 2
Foundry Security

Mulligan or Restart for Manic Vandal and some spells like Fiery Impulse. Young Pyromancer is always good.

His creatures are all artifacts. Destroy the most powerful ones with Manic Vandal.
Kill Runed Servitor first if (or when) you want to draw a card.
Kill Chief of the Foundry as soon as possible.
Let Bonded Constructs survive to kill them with spells like Chandra’ s Fury and Flames of the Firebrand
Most times he will play aggressively, so kill what you can with blocks.
Attack when possible and win.

Notes:
Primal Clay is usually played as a 3/3.
Ravaging Blaze can finish the game if you can save it.
Crumbling Colossusl should be useless by the time he plays it. Don’t block it if you can survive.
Read Manic Vandals flavour text. 🙂

Duel 3
Kaladesh Wildlife

Mulligan or Restart for Chandra’ s Phoenix and Flames of the Firebrand or Chandra’s Outrage.
Fiery Impulse and Young Pyromancer are always good.

As soon as you can play Chandra’ s Phoenix this game is almost over.
Keep attacking with it every turn and if he kills it, it will come back to your hand when you damage him with a spell like Chandra’s Outrage.

Scute Mob can be very dangerous. Kill any of them he plays when possible(and before he has 5 lands on board).

Play Chandra’s Outrage to kill some of his bigger creatures like Craw Wurm.

Defend with some creatures and keep attacking with Chandra’ s Phoenix.

If you can clear the board , Pyre Charger is an excellent finisher(use his ability as many times as possible).

Notes:
If you can have Embermaw Hellion on board for some time, it can make you win faster.
Pyre Charger as a defender doesn’t let opponet to attack as he would like.

He can play Spidery Grasp to block while his creature is tapped.
Ambush Viper can surprise you. He can play it as an instant(flash ability) and block and kill any creature it blocks(deathtouch ability)
He can kill some of your creatures Hunt the Weak
Giant Badger gets +2+2 when it blocks. It can kill your Fire Elemental for example.

Duel 4
Baral’ s Lieutenant

Mulligan or Restart for Manic Vandal , Firefiend Elemental and spells like Chandra’s Ignition and Chandra’ s Outrage.

He will try to build an army while making your creatures useless with Banisher Priest(exiles a creatures until you kill it) and spells like Arrest , Prison Term and Oppressive Rays
(Those make your creatures not able to attack or block mostly).
Kill Banisher Priest with a spell and destroy Prison Term(or any aura enchanted on your most powerful creature).

Play Firefiend Elemental(more is better) and anything else with charge when you can.
Kill his creatures with spells.
If you have Chandra’ s Ignition use it accordingly to kill all/most of his creatures or all creatures.

Kill Captain of the Watch as soon as he plays it.
Sometimes he can play Raise the Alarm and block/kill your Firefiend Elemental.

Notes:
Silent Arbiter most times helps you. Kill it just when you can finish him.
If he plays Imposing Sovereign early, kill it as soon as possible.
His Heavy Infantry is useful only if he has the control of the board so you can’t come back.

Duel 5
Captain Baral

Mulligan or Restart for Pyre Chargerl , Chandra’ s Phoenixl , Embermaw Hellion and Chandra’s Ignition.

Play Pyre Chargerl and Chandra’ s Phoenixl when possible.
He will play defender Wall creatures like Wall of Frost.
He will play counters many times but with Memory Lapse and Remand so your cards will go back to your hand. Try to force him to counter always creatures and not damage spells.

Throughout the game he will play creatures like Dungeon Geists and Tidebinder Mage or Claustrophobia(enchantment) to make your creatures useless for a turn or more.

Play Embermaw Hellion when possible. If it stays on board, all your creatures do 1 more damage and all your damage spells also.
After he has 1 or no cards in hand and played his counters , play Chandra’s Ignition on 1 of your creatures with 3 power(you will do 4 damage to all creatures) so you will clear the board of his creatures except some walls.

Pyre Charger is important for many reasons:
Costs 2 mana. Has charge. It can kill Wall of Frost if he has to block or lose.
It can be combined with Chandra’s Ignition to do exactly the amount of damage you want.

Finish him with Ravaging Blaze and other spells and attacks.

Notes:
Attack if possible before playing Chandra’ s Ignition if you know the creatures can survive if they get blocked.
His Invisible Stalker is unblockable and can’t be targeted by your spells(hexproof) but will die with spells like Chandra’ s Fury and Chandra’ s Ignition.
Manic Vandal can be useful. He has some artifact creatures and enchantments.

Nissa Revane

Duel 1
Vampire Stalkers

Mulligan or Restart for Nissa’ s Chosen , Nissa’ s Pilgrimage and Charging Rhino.
Primal Bellow and Wild Instincts are always good.

You will lock him down with your many creatures in defense and attack only with Charging Rhinos.
He will play low cost creatures like Pulse Tracker and Child of Night.
Play Nissa’ s Chosen at turn 2 and Nissa’ s Pilgrimage at turn 3.
If you don’t have Nissa’ s Chosen, play Nissa’ s Pilgrimage before you play a creature.

Throughout the game he will kill some of your creatures with spells like Doom Blade and Feast of Blood.
Play creatures like Hitchclaw Recluse and Wildheart Invoker before you play Charging Rhino.

Charging Rhino is very important because he can only be blocked by 1 creature so you’ ll want it to survive as long as possible. If you can have 2 on board you win easily.

You can kill some of his creatures with Wild Instincts.

Finish him with attacks (usually the only way in mono green 🙂 ).

Notes:
His Guul Draz Vampire and Ruthless Cullblade can become very dangerous sometimes.
His Bloodrite Invoker can sometimes save him.(his ability costs 8 mana but note that it can kil you if you don’ t expect it)
Your Wildheart Invoker‘s ability(8 mana) and Primal Bellow can be a way to finish off your opponent.

Duel 2
The Roil

Mulligan or Restart for Hitchclaw Recluse , Nissa’ s Pilgrimage and Wild Instincts.
Primal Bellow and Scute Mob are always good.

He will play mostly flying creatures like Tempest Owl and Living Tsunami(lol) and use Wind Zendikon to make a land a flying creature.

You will play as many Hitchclaw Recluses as you can when possible (most spiders can block flying creatures – reach ability) so you can block most of his creatures.

Play Wild Instincts to kill his most powerful creature or an enchanted land so he has less mana to play next turn.

He will play Summoner’ s Bane sometimes (counterspell). Play carefully.
Attack every turn if possible and block with spiders.

Finish him with attacks.

Notes:
Grazing Gladehart can help you survive until you can play more expensive creatures.
Scute Mob can become very very powerful. Leave it in defense until you have 5 lands.

Duel 3
Visions of Emrakul

He has 100 HP. Don’t let it scare you. You can win by bringing it to 0 and by surviving long enough for him to play Emrakul, the Aeons’ Torn(costs 15 mana).

Mulligan or Restart for Nissa’ s Pilgrimage , Wild Instincts and Scute Mob.
Nissa’ s Chosen if you can’t find Scute Mob (hopefully you’ ll draw 1 soon).
Grazing Gladehart and Primal Bellow are always good.

First of all, if he plays Awakening Zone early it will be very hard to win with damage.
Restart if you want to try winning with damage.
If you want to win by surviving unti he plays Emrakul, the Aeons’ Torn, play
Grazing Gladehart as soon as possible (to gain life whenever you play a land) and defend while not killing any of his Eldrazi Spawns.

He will play creatures and spells that summon Eldrazi Spawns(0/1 creature that gives 1 mana when sacrificed) like Emrakul’ s Hatcher , Kozilek’ s Predator , Growth Spasm
and Nest Invader.
Eldrazi Spawns help him play for example a creature that costs 5 mana by tapping 3 lands and sacrificing 2 Eldrazi Spawns .
He can also play Hand of Emrakul , a very powerful creature by sacrifising
4 Eldrazi Spawns instead of paying its mana cost.
So eventually, if he has enough lands and Eldrazi Spawns he will play Emrakul, the Aeons’ Torn and the match will be over. (You win technically following Nissa’s Story)

You play Nissa’ s Chosen and Nissa’ s Pilgrimage when possible.
Play Scute Mob on turn 4 if he already played Flame Slash or if you have Primal Bellow so it can survive it. If you have 2xScute Mob and/or want to risk it, play it on turn 1.
You let the Scute Mob grow turn by turn.

If possible, use Wild Instincts to kill an Eldrazi Spawn instead of another creature to slow him down.

You play creatures, attack when possible so he blocks with Eldrazi Spawn your big creatures like Scute Mob and Charging Rhino.

Kill his Hand of Emrakul with Wild Instincts and by blocking it with Scute Mob(when it’s 10/10 or more).(And sacrifice a land)

If you manage to have a huge Scute Mob or more and keep attacking, he will eventually have no way to play Emrakul, the Aeons Torn unless he can have time to have 15 lands in play to cast him.
You will win 2-3 devastating attacks from Scute Mob especially if you can play Wildheart Invoker’s ability on it to give it trample.

Notes:
Baloth Woodcrasher can force him to block if you can play a land every turn.

Duel 4
Boggart Tribe

Mulligan or Restart for Nissa’ s Pilgrimage , Nissa’ s Chosen , Dauntless Dourbark and any more creatures.
Grazing Gladehart and Primal Bellow are always good.

He will play various(and weird) goblin creatures like Weirding Shaman , Hornet Harasser , Facevaulter and Goblin Fireslinger.

He will kill some of your creatures with Tarfire , Fodder Launch and various abilities of his creatures.

He will also try to damage you directly with his creatures’ abilities and spells.
For this reason Grazing Gladehart can be important in this match.
You will play Nissa’ s Chosen and try to play a creature every turn but still play Nissa’ s Pilgrimage as early as you can so you can play your big creatures earlier.
Kill Gobln Warchief as soon as he plays it if possible with Wild Instincts.
Play Dauntless Dourbark when you have at least 5 lands so it can’t die from a Fodder
Launch. If this survives, you will win eventually.
Attack when possible with big creatures, forcing him to block and finish him.

Note:
Boggart Loggers can kill your Dauntless Dourbark. If he plays it early, kill this as soon as possible.

Duel 5
Dwynen

Mulligan or Restart for Nissa’ s Pilgrimage , Nissa’ s Chosen , Hitchclaw Recluse and Grazing Gladehart. Try to have Sapseep Forest as 1 of your lands.
Primal Bellow and Wild Instincts are always good.

He will play various elf creatures like Elvish Warrior , Shaman of the Pack , Civic Wayfinder , Eyeblight Assassin , Dwynen’ s Elite and the spell Elvish Promenade to try to build an army of elves.

Play Nissa’ s Chosen and Hitchclaw Recluse when possible to have blockers.

Play Grazing Gladehart as soon as you can. You will gain life every time a land enters the battlefield under your control. This way Nissa’ s Pilgrimage and Boundless Realms will ensure you survive. Also remember to use Sapseep Forest‘s ability when you can.

He will kill some of your creatures with his creatures abilities and spells like Eyeblight’ s Ending

Kill his most powerful creatures with Wild Instincts.

Have creatures on defense, attack when possible to force him to block soon.
Slowly but surely you will win.

Notes:
Your Battlewand Oak and Woodland Crasher can become very powerful for a turn when lands enter the battlefield for you.

Battle for Zendikar (Part 1 of 2)

Duel 1
Eldrazi

Note: [A simple army of creatures like [i]Glory Seeker[/i] , Kor Castigator and Shadow Glider
can be enough to win. E.g. a hand with 3-4 creatures and 3-4 lands. Play creature every turn, attack with all every turn.]

Mulligan or Restart for Shadow Glider and/or Tandem Tactics and/or Retreat to Emeria. Glory Seeker , Kor Castigator are always good early creatures.
Stasis Snare is your removal spell, if you can get this too it’s very good but you must always have creatures first.

The tactic is to ignore his attacks most of the time and attack with flying creatures like Shadow Glider and Eagle of the Watch. Then use Tandem Tactics and Retreat to Emeria(the +1+1 to your creatures) to overwhelm him.

He will probably play Call the Scions and creatures like Benthic Infiltrator that have the Ingest ability-every time it deals damage to you you exile the top card of your library- (this basically destroys your library slowly but you can ignore it)
He will try to play big creatures like Deathless Behemoth and Eldrazi Devastator. This is where your Stasis Snare can be very important to win the match.

Notes for some of your cards:
Ondu Greathorn with Retreat to Emeria and land draws can help finish the match.
Felidar Sovereign is your most powerful creature but expensive.(lifelink vigilance)
Kor Castigator can’t be blocked by Eldrazi Scions. This can give you an early win sometimes.

Notes for some of your opponents’s cards:
Mist Intruder is probably the only creature that can block your flying creatures.
Scour from Existence can remove your Stasis Snare so he will get his exiled creature back to the battlefield, but it’s expensive. He would need to sacrifice 4 Scions and tap 4 lands to play it on turn 4. Just keep in mind that he has one powerful removal if your match goes for long.

Duel 2
Zendikari

Mulligan or Restart for 3 lands and low cost creatures like Glory Seeker and flying creatures like Eagle of the Watch. Try to have Windborne Charge or Tandem Tactics and Stasis Snare. Retreat to Emeria is very good if you get say 4 lands and 2 creatures.

He will play an army of Allies. Some allies have an “enter the battlefield” ability that also triggers every time any other ally enters the battlefield on his control. I think all the creatures he has are allies so multiple abilities can be triggered. At a point he can have his creatures get vigilance, +1+1 and tap one of your creatures in the same turn.
Generally he will try to win with his numbers.

You will build a good defense that can attack with many creatures and win with flying creatures (and Windborne Charge) or having a bigger army in the end.
If you can’t finish him you will defend and try to have constantly Retreat to Emeria ability trigger every turn or have time to play Felidar Sovereign and control the game.

Use Stasis Snare on his Kor Emtanglers always. Tajuru Beastmaster is another good target.
Use Tandem tactics on attack or defense but preferrably when you can kill his blockers or attackers. This card is your deck’s best combat trick. Don’t forget it gives +1+2.

Notes for some of your cards:
Stasis Snare can be played as an instant! You can play it before an ally enters opponent’s battlefield to prevent the abilities from triggering.

Notes for some cards of your opponent’s cards:
Cliffside Lookout has an ability that gives all his creatures +1+1. The ability needs 5 mana but if you let him in play for long it can make his army unstoppable.
Serene Steward is an interesting card. It can give a +1+1 counter on a creature whenever he gains life, but I still haven’t seen him gain life.

Duel 3
Eldrazi

In this match the opponent Eldrazi is like the first Duel in the way it uses the Ingest ability to exile cards from your library but this time it makes good use of it. He will aslo have Eldrazi Scions again.
So If you let him have 3-4 Eldrazi Scions he might be able to play Ruin Processor (it’s 7/8) that costs 7 mana on turn 5 or 4.

Now you have the army of allies.
Mulligan or Restart for Hada Freeblade , Oran-Rief Survivalist (You want to play those early to get many +1+1 counters on them) and Lantern Scout or Kor Bladewhirl or Veteran Warleader and Gideon’s Reproach.
Retreat to Emeria is always good.
Roil’s Retribution is great but you won’t be able to play it for 4-5 turns.

You will play Hada Freeblade and or Oran-Rief Survivalists on the first turns if possible. They get +1+1 counter every time an ally enters the battlefield under your control.(if they survive they can be 5/6 and 5/5 in 5 turns) Eventually you will have an army of allies with every turn possibly all having first strike from Kor Bladewhirl or lifelink from Lantern Scout. Your entire deck is a combat trick engine most of the time.

You can kill some of his creatures with Gideon’s Reproach and Roil’s Retribution (works only when they are attacking or blocking)
Use Smite the Monstrous if you draw it for Ulamog’s Despoiler or Ruin Processor.

He will try to exile cards from your library and then use them with cards like Wasteland Strangler (this can give a creature -3-3) and Blight Herder.
He can kill(exile) some of your creatures with Complete Disregard and Grip of Desolation
In the end he will play some huge Eldrazi creatures.

Notes for some of your cards:
If you can play Retreat to Emeria you can put an ally every time you play a land and never run out of tricks.
Roil’s Retribution is the best card for removing many creatures or a big one like Blight Herder
Evolving Wilds can trigger Retreat to Emeria twice in a turn.
Lantern Scout can give all your creatures lifelink.

Veteran Warleader can be your most powerful creature if you have many creatures.
His power and toughness are equal to the number of creatures you control.
He also has a very powerful ability. If you tap another ally it can get first strike or vigilance or trample.
E.g. If you have 5 he is 5/5 and if 3 of them are allies and you tap 3 of them you can have a 5/5 with vigilance first strike and trample.

Notes for some cards of your opponent’s cards:
Fathom Feeder has deathtouch.

Battle for Zendikar (Part 2 of 2)

Duel 4
Nissa

Nissa has Jace Beleren on the battlefield. She will use almost every turn his +2 ability that makes both both players draw a card. This actually helps you, but it’s still safer to kill him when possible.

You still have the army of allies but some different cards.
Mulligan or Restart for Hada Freeblade , Oran-Rief Survivalist (You want to play those early to get many +1+1 counters on them) and Lantern Scout or Kor Bladewhirl or Veteran Warleader and Gideon’s Reproach(2 of these are good for this match).
Firemantle Mage is good too.
Munda, Ambush Leader is always good.

Same basic strategy as duel 3:
“You will play Hada Freeblade and or Oran-Rief Survivalists on the first turns if possible. They get +1+1 counter every time an ally enters the battlefield under your control.(if they survive they can be 5/6 and 5/5 in 5 turns) Eventually you will have an army of allies with every turn possibly all having first strike from Kor Bladewhirl or lifelink from Lantern Scout. Your entire deck is a combat trick engine most of the time.”

You can kill some of his creatures with Gideon’s Reproach and Roil’s Retribution (works only when they are attacking or blocking)
Use Smite the Monstrous if you draw it for Oran Rief Hydra or Undergrowth Champion.

Now, she will have powerful early creatures like Scythe Leopard and Snapping Gnarlid
They both get +1+1 for the turn if a land enters the battlefield for her.
She will try to have more lands than you and play spells like Nissa’s Pilgrimage and Natural Connection to get lands on the battlefield (that’s why you need to kill Jayce fast) getting ready to play big creatures like Oran-Rief Hydra and Territorial Baloth while triggering landfall abilities of her creatures at the same time.

She will use Wild Instincts to kill some of your creatures so you need to have many creatures to be able to defend after this happens and she has e.g. an attacking 4/2 creature.

You can finish her off with Firemantle Mage‘s ally ability(makes all your creatures unblockable unless the opponent can block with 2 creatures for each 1 of your attackers)

Notes for some of your cards:
Munda, Ambush Leader will help you always have creatures to play.
Grovetender Druids can give you even more creatures.
Try to use Veteran Warleader in defense (first strike ability) to survive.

Notes for some of your opponents’s cards:
Undergrowth Champion needs to take damage 2 or more times to be killed. Try to damage him with spell as well as when blocking or attacking in the same turn.

Duel 5
Ulamog

Mulligan or Restart for

Hada Freeblade , Oran-Rief Survivalist (You want to play those early to get many +1+1 counters on them) and Lantern Scout or Kor Bladewhirl or Veteran Warleader and
Stasis Snare and/or Aligned Hedron Netork and/or Smite the Monstrous.
Stasis Snare is most important because it’s like an instant with 3 mana and by the time you will need to kill a huge Eldrazi you’ll probably find more of your removal spells.
Try to also have many colors of mana or dual lands or Evolving Wilds.

You have some lands that give blue mana in your deck. Get one when possible to be able to maximize the Converge ability when needed.

You’ll actually use the same strategy as before about the allies.
This time you have Kor Entanglers that can tap an enemy creature every time this or another ally anters the battlefield for you, and you have Tajuru Warcaller(+2+2 so you can finish the game easier when you have many creatures.

He will try to have the mana to play the big Eldrazi creatures like Oblivion Sower , Desolation Twin and of course Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger.
He will kill some(or many) of your creatures with Brood Butcher‘s ability , Unnatural Aggression and Titan’s Presence.
He will play many small creatures too like Blisterpod Catacomb Sifter and bring Eldrazi Scions with them and some other cards.
He can draw cards and have mana accelaration with cards like Hedron Archive and Kozilek’s Channeler.

You will build an army and attack to force him to block until he can only rely on his big Eldrazi.
Unified Front makes Veteran Warleader very powerful(don’t forget trample)
If you have Tajuru Warcaller and it survives for a few turns, it should be an easy match.
Skyrider Elf will help you get damage to him even if he has 4 small creatures and 2 huge Eldrazis.
Use Stasis Snare on Brood Butcher. He is the main reason you need him to be forced to block and lose his Eldrazi Scions.

I think this match is not so hard if you know what your cards do, but it can become very hard.

Notes for some of your cards:
Play Unified Front with all 4 colors available in your deck to trigger Tajuru Warcaller‘s Rally ability that will give +2+2 to all your creatures 4 times
If you play Skyrider Elf with all 4 colors available in your deck he will be 4/4. It’s the only flying creature you have.(x3)
Aligned Hedron Network works on your creatures as well so be careful when you use it.
He has no way to remove either Aligned Hedron Network or Stasis Snare util he can play Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger and exile them.

Notes for some of your opponents’s cards:
He can use From Beyond to find any Eldrazi he wants from his deck.
When/if Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger is played, nothing happens(meaning you don’t lose right away like in some older boss duels). You can lose from it only if you have no blockers, no removal spells and have less than 21 cards in your library which means you already lost anyway.

Oath of the Gatewatch (Part 1 of 2)

This campaign should be easy most of the time.
You have a complete deck and your cards have good synergies.

Duel 1
Eldrazi Brood
Mulligan or Restart for Rampant Growth , Prey Upon , Nissa’s Judgment
Most creatures are good but if you can have Undergrowth Champion or Managorger Hydra early, you can win fast. Don’t be afraid to keep a big creaure like Pelakka Wyrm if the rest of your hand is good. If you like to play with lifegain, try to have Grazing Gladeheart first.

He will probably play creatures like Salvage Drone , Mist Intruder and Vile Aggregate that have the Ingest ability-every time it deals damage to you, you exile the top card of your library- this allows him to play some abilities that require him to put an exiled card you own into your graveyard to activate them like Cryptic Cruiser‘s ability that can tap a creature.

He will try to kill your creatures with spells like Reality Hemorrage , Touch of the Void and Barrage Tyrant‘s ability.
You should kill Barrage Tyrant and Cryptic Cruiser as soon as possible.

The match should come to a point you have 3-4 big creatures and overwhelm his creatures.

Notes for some of your cards:
You have many creatures with the Landfall ability. Play them before you play lands when possible.(Territorial Baloth, Undergrowth Champion, Grazing Gladeheart).

Managorger Hydra gets a +1/+1 counter every time a player casts a spell
Example of a use of this ability is: while Managorger Hydra is 1/1 and you play Prey Upon fighting an opponent 1/2 creature, your Managorger Hydra will become 2/2 before the damage is dealt and kill the 1/2 and survive.

Pellaka Wyrm gives you 7 life when you play it and if it dies you draw a card.

Greenwarden of Murasa can return any card from your graveyard to your hand.

Nissa’s Judgment is your best removal spell. It gives a +1/+1 counter to up to two creatures and then those creatures deal damage to an opponent creature you target without them taking damage unlike Prey Upon(fight).

Notes for some of your opponents’s cards:

Processor Assault is his best removal spell. It deals 5 damage to a creature.

Duel 2
Nissa (You are Ob Nixilis)

Mulligan or Restart for Languish, Cruel Edict, Typhoid Rats and Black Cat.
Your deck is very powerful, there are many more good options for a first hand aside from this.

He will try to have many creatures like Nissa’s Chosen Grazing Gladeheart and Sacred Wolf.
Until he can play big creatures like Oran-Rief Hydra. You will try to kill all of them with Languish and make him sacrifice big creatures with Cruel Edict (when they are alone).
If you have Bone Splinters or Murder , save it for a big creature.

Typhoid Rats has deathtouch which can help you a lot in defense and attack(1 damage from it is enough to kill any creature, so most of the time he won’t block it or he won’t attack if you have it in defense).

When Black Cat dies(even if you sacrifice it) the opponent discards a card. This helps a lot in this match.

You can finish the game with Corrupt or your creatures.

Notes for some of your cards:

You have many cards that can do something when a creature dies like Smothering Abomination

You can combine Altar’s Reap cost to sacrifice a creature with a creature like Black Cat to draw two cards and make opponent discard a card at the same time.

Bloodgift Demon‘s ability can also be used to make opponent lose life if you miss some damage to win.

Notes for some of your opponents’s cards:

Oran-Rief Hydra can beat you alone if you let it get too many +1/+1 counters.

Sacred Wolf can’t be targeted by spells but can be sacrificed with Cruel Edict.

Duel 3
Ob Nixilis (You are Chandra)

Mulligan or Restart for Young Pyromancer, Lightning Bolt and Reckless Bushwhacker. Coal Stoaker and a spell like Chandra’s Outrage are always good.
LIke before, your deck is very powerful, there are many more good options for a first hand aside from this. Just sometimes, he will punish you if you start slow.
Also, red deck wins so you can always try to just go all out attack and burn on this one.

He will play creatures like Typhoid Rats that have the deathtouch ability and colorless creatures like Kozilek’s Translator, until he can play demons like Harvester of Souls and Bloodgift Demon.
He will kill some of your creatures with spells like Tar Snare and Cruel Edict.

If you have Young Pyromancer you can kill his creatures with spells like Lightning Bolt while getting a creature(token) on the battlefield so you can have a blocker for his big creatures and more attackers after.
Once you have enough creatures you can play Reckless Bushwhacker for its surge cost and finish the game (e.g. you play a 1 mana creature, a lighting bolt getting a token from Young Pyromancer, Coal Stoaker and then Reckless Bushwhacker for its surge cost. In this example you will have 4 creatures with haste!)

Generally, the plan with or without Young Pyromancer is to attack and kill some of his creatures with spells while damaging him too. As always, don’t be afraid to get low on health.
Block only when necessary. You can finish the game with spells like Blaze.

Notes for some of your cards:

Coal Stoaker gives you 3 red mana when you play it (be careful to stop the timer if you want to play an instant with it before the main phase ends)

Goblin Freerunner has menace so it can only be blocked by 2 or more creatures.

Boulder Salvo has surge so you can combine it with other spells with less mana.

Blaze can be your most powerful spell when you have many lands. It can also be cast for 0 mana to combine it with something that has surge if needed.

Notes for some of your opponents’s cards:

Bearer of Silence can force you to sacrifice a creature.

Witness the End forces you to exile 2 cards from your hand.

Bloodgift Demon can sometimes help you if he tries to damage you and gives you a draw.

Oath of the Gatewatch (Part 2 of 2)

Duel 4
Eldrazi Brood (You are The Gatewatch)

You have a 5color deck.
Mulligan or Restart for as many different color lands you can find and/or Manalith.
You keep creatures that take advantage of many colors like Woodland Wanderer or Skyrider Elf, and/or spells like Radiant Flames(to deal with Scions) and Banishing LIght(remove big creatures).
Reflector Mage is always good.

He will play creatures and spells that summon Eldrazi Scions like Eyeless Watcher in order to be able to cast his big Eldrazi creatures like Eldrazi Devastator, Oblivion Sower and World Breaker.
He will probably counter some of your spells with Void Shatter.
He can exile some of your creatures with Titan’s Presence.

You will kill his Eldrazi Scions with Radiant Flames and when he can play his big creatures, remove/kill them with spells like Smite the Monstrous and Banishing LIght.
You want to come to a point you have a small army of creatures while he has 1 big creature at most and win slowly but surely. You can finish the game sometimes with Skyrider Elf or Drana’s Emissary(flying).

Notes for some of your cards:

Prism Array can be a very helpful card. You can tap his blocker(s) before they can block or attacker(s) before they attack.
If you have all 5 colors available and no other options you can scry 3.

Reflector Mage returns a creature to its owner’s hand and prevents him from playing it for a turn.

Notes for some of your opponents’s cards:

World Breaker can exile your Banishing Light thus returning his exiled creature to the battlefield.

Duel 5
The Eldrazi Titans (You are The Gatewatch)

This is a special duel.
The opponent has 40 hp and has the emblem The Eldrazi Titans on the battlefield.
“Instead of drawing a card each turn, The Eldrazi Titans put a Wates onto the battlefield and put a nonland card into their hand.”

You have the normal 20 hp and the emblem The Gatewatch on the battlefield.
“At the beginning of some of your turns, a member of the Gatewatch will join the battle.”
This means that on most of your first turns a planeswalker will be put onto the battlefield under your control. Jace, Gideon, Nissa or Chandra.
This of course gives you incredible power.

You can’t Mulligan in this match.
You start with a hand of 3 lands and the 4 Oath legendary enchantments.

He will play creatures that give mana like Hedron Crawler and Warden of Geometries.
He will try to win by playing his big Eldrazi creatures including Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger and Kozilek, the Great Distortion.
He will kill/exile some of your creatures with Spatian Contortion and Titan’s Presence.

You will have a big advantage with your army of Planeswalkers and Oath of[planeswalker] enchantments.
You’ll try to have an army of creatures and token creatures while killing his mana producing creatures and big creatures when possible with spells like Fall of the Titans and Immolating Glare. You will also use Pacifism(try to use it on bigger creatures and not on mana producing ones because this aura can’t stop them from using abilites)
Oath of Chandra will slowly help to lower his 40 hp along with your attacks.
You can finish the game with attacks from many creatures and token creatures and Fall of the Titans.
You can also win by milling him with Jayce Beleren if it comes to a very defensive match because his emblem gives him 2 cards each turn.

Notes for some of your cards:

Fall of the Titans can be used on any 1 or 2 creatures and/or players.

Roil Sprout may be more effective than it normally is because this opponent doen’t draw cards from the top of his library every turn. (no way to test this I think)

Omnath, Locus of Rage can help you finish the game. When any elemental you control dies it deals 3 damage to a creature or player. You can combine this with elementals from Chandra, Flamecaller first ability.

Notes for some of your opponents’s cards:

Void Winnower will make all your token creatures unable to block.

Conduit of Ruin can bring him any big Eldrazi he wants on top of his library so be careful, you could make him draw it(maybe Ulamog) with Jayce Beleren.

Gruesome Slaughter can’t be stopped with Pacifism.

Shadows over Innistrad (Part 1 of 2)

Duel 1
Werewolves (You are Jace)

You will take advantage of the Investigate mechanic as you play with this deck.
Some of your creature and spells will give you an artifact token that can be sacrificed by tapping it and paying 2 mana to draw you a card.

Mulligan or Restart for Uninvited Geist, Illusionary Servant, Fog Bank and Press for Answers and/or Claustrophobia.
Telling Time, Phantasmal Bear , Jace’s Scrutiny and Pore over the Pages are always good.

He will play wolf creatures like Ulrich’s Kindred and werewolf creatures(that can transform) like Tormented Pariah and try to overwhelm you with an army of wolves/werewolves.
He will try to kill some of your creatures with spells like Reduce to Ashes and Rabit Bite(you can make it useless if you can play Jayce’s Scrutiny on his creature).

You will play creatures that he can’t block most of the time, like Uninvited Geist(has skulk ability-can’t be blocked by creatures with higher power than it-and when it transforms it’s unblockable anyway) and Illusionary Servant(flying).

If you have Fog Bank you will have one of the best defender creatures so you can block any big creature with it while neither takes damage.

You will tap some of his creatures with Press for Answers or Claustrophobia and block safely or stop some the damage of his attacks with Jace’s Scrutiny.

Draw cards when possible with your Investigate tokens or Pore over the Pages.
Finish the game with attacks from creatures with flying, skulk or unblockable.

Notes on some of your cards:

Sturmgeist will die(0/0) if you play it while having no other cards in hand or if it’s on the battlefield and you play all your cards.

Phantasmal Bear and some other illusion creatures die even if just targeted by a spell or ability.

Duel 2
Vampires

Mulligan or Restart for Uninvited Geist, Illusionary Servant, Fog Bank and Press for Answers and or Claustrophobia.
Telling Time, Phantasmal Bear , Jace’s Scrutiny and Pore over the Pages are always good. Gone Missing can be more helpful in this duel than the first one.

Same strategy like before, just try to use Claustrophobia on Markov Dreadknight or if you don’t have it play Gone Missing on it if it gets too powerful or another vampire that has +1/+1 counters on it.

He will play vampire creatures like Sanguinary Mage, Bloodmad Vampire and Stromkirk Mentor.
He will play spells and creatures that can discard a card and use the Madness mechanic to his advantage. He will try to kill some of your creatures with spells like Fiery Temper and Murderous Compulsion playing them for their madness cost if possible.

You will need Fog Bank so that you can block every turn without losing your creatures.
Choose carefully with which creatures to attack and block and when.
Try to play Phanasmal Dragon after he kills one of your other creatures.
Finish the game with attacks mostly from flying creatures.

Notes for some of your opponent’s cards:

Sanguinary Mage has prowess. On some turns he can be very powerful.

Ravenous Bloodseeker becomes 3/1 if he choses to discard a card.

Bloodmad Vampire can become very powerful if you don’t block it.

Markov Dreadknight is probably his only flying creature that can block.

Duel 3
Ghoulcallers

Mulligan or Restart for Sleep and/or Claustrophobia , Fog Bank , Reckless Scholar and any creatures with flying. Phantasmal Bear is good to have an early creature.
Drownyard Explorers is always good.
Note: I think there’s only 1 Sleep in your deck, if you can’t find it early it’s not a big problem.

You can keep Sturmgeist if you think you can use it effectively. Depending on how the match goes it can be very effective or useless. Make sure you can draw with it on most turns and it can help a lot. Works well with Pore over the Pages.
Be careful not to lose the game by drawing too many cards if you play defensively.

He will try to overwhelm you with an army of zombies.
He will play creatures like Crow of Dark Tidings and Ghoulcaller’s Accomplice and spells like Shamble Back and Gisa’s Bidding (those give him zombies).
He will try to kill/remove some of your creatures with spells like Compelling Deterrence and Flesh to Dust.

You will try to build an army of your own. You will probably only be able to defend at first with Fog Bank blocking when possible. You defend with Fog Bank and other creatures and attack with flying creatures when possible. When he has many creatures on the battlefield, play Sleep to tap them for your turn and their next turn enabling you to get 1 or 2 all out attacks or buy you time to get more creatures on the battlefield.

Make use of your draws with investigate, Reckless Scholar and Pore over the Pages.
When you discard a card try to discard a card with madness so you can play it for its madness cost when possible(and useful) For example you can discard and play Just the Wind to return a creature to his owner’s hand for 1 mana.

Try to use Claustrophobia on big creatures like Morkrut Necropod.
Use Welcome to the Fold when possible to gain control of 1 of his creatures for the rest of the match. Finish him with attacks from flying creatures.

Notes for some of your cards:

Nephalia Moondrakes can give flying to 1 of your creatures when it enters the battlefield.
Its second ability can win you the game sometimes. It gives all your creatures flying by paying 6 mana but it has to be in your graveyard to activate it. If your Nagging Thoughts gets Nephalia Moondrakes to your graveyard, keep that in mind.

Welcome to the Fold can gain control of a creature with toughness 2 or less.
If you can play it for its madness cost you can gain control of any creature if you have the mana to pay depending on that creature’s toughness.

Just the Wind (any bounce effect) destroys token creatures. Sometimes it’s more useful to be played on big creatures though.

Notes for some of your opponent’s cards:

Rottenheart Ghoul can make you discard a card when it dies, so be careful not to kill it while blocking if you don’t want to lose a card from your hand. Or take advantage of it by discarding and laying a card with madness.

Cards like Ghoulcaller’s Accomplice have abilities that can be played while they are in the graveyard. He can exile this for 4 mana and get a zombie token on the battlefield.

Shadows over Innistrad (Part 2 of 2)

Duel 4
Thraben’s Townspeople

Mulligan or Restart for Illusionary Servant, Phantasmal Bear , Phantasmal Dragon, Claustrophobia and Welcome to the Fold. Sleep can be very helpful in this match too.
Fog Bank and Pore over the Pages are always good.

He will try to have an army of humans that sometimes help each other along with equipment for them. His deck is fast but nothing special. He will play creatures like Pious Evangel and Town Gossipmonnger and Equipment artifacts like True-Faith Censer. Some of them can transform.

You will play your illusion creatures: Phantasmal Bear, Illusionary Servant and Phantasmal Dragon.
I think there’s no way for him to kill them aside from blocking and Phantasmal Dragon will be too much for him most of the time.

If he manages to have a big creature(with equipment) you use Claustrophobia or Just the Wind on it.

Use Welcome to the Fold when possible.
The best target should be Pious Evangel but you can use Claustrophobia on it too.
You can also use this on Cathar’s Companion because of its ability(it gains indestructible when you play a non-creature spell and you have a lot of them)
Finish him off with your flying creatures.

Notes on some of your cards:

This is a rule that applies to any “gain control of creature” effect like Welcome to the Fold:
If you gain control of a creature that has equipment on it, the equipment stays on it but he still has control of it and can equip it on another creature on his turn.

Notes on some of your opponent’s cards:

Harvest Hand becomes an equipment(transforms) when it dies.

Pious Evangel can become very powerful if it transforms but is useless if you use Claustrophobia on it.

When Town Gossipmonger transforms to Incited Rabble it has an ability that can give it more power so be careful when you block it.

Duel 5
Avacyn (You are Jace and Tamiyo)

This deck is very powerful and this duel is the best practice for learning how to play decks with the investigate mechanic.

Mulligan or Restart for Thraben Inspector, Tireless Tracker, Ulvenwald Mysteries, Journey to Nowhere, Confront the Unknown and/or Clip Wings.
Jace, Unraveler of Secrets is in this deck too if you can find him keep him.
Graf Mole and Bygone Bishop are always good.

He has a deck with humans and angels and will play creatures like Paranoid Parish-Blade, Seraph of Dawn and Reaper of Flight Moonsilver.
He will try to kill some of your creatures with spells like Angelic Purge and Puncturing LIght. Some of them have the delirium mechanic.
Keep in mind that he sometimes can play Descend upon the Sinful and exile all creatures.

You will slowly build an army while drawing many cards with investigate and get token creatures with Ulvenwald Mysteries. Most cards synergize with the investigate mechanic.
You can kill some of his creatures in combat when you attack with a creature and playing Confront the Unknown when it gets blocked(he could play Puncturing Light and kill your creature)
You can force him to kill some of his angel creatures with Clip Wings.
Play Journey to Nowhere on his more powerful creatures like Reaper of Flight Moonsilver.

You finish him with many creatures and token creatures or 1 or 2 very powerful Tirelss Tracker or Sage of Ancient Lore.

Notes on some of your cards:

Altered Ego can become a copy of any creature on the battlefield.

While Ulvenwald Mysteries is on the battlefield, it might be helpful to attack with a creature and let it die if you really need to draw a card (investigate).

Silent Observer is an excellent blocker against angels. It has 5 toughness and flying.

Notes on some of your opponent’s cards:

Reaper of Flight Moonsilver delirium ability can be very powerful in combat. He can sacrifice a creature and get +2/+1 for the turn.
Note: The A.I. can sometimes sacrifice many creatures with him for no reason and help you win.

Angelic Purge can exile enchantments as well as creatures.

Duel 6
Avacyn (you are Sorin)

Mulligan or Restart for Behind the Scenes, Mortify, Vampire NIghthawk and any small creatures.
Survive the NIght and Bygone Bishop are always good.

He will play mostly human and angel creatures like Paranoid Parish-Blade and Reaper of Flight Moonsilver. He could play Always watching to make his creatures have +1+1 constantly.
He will kill some of your creatures with spells like Puncturing Light and Inner Struggle.

You will try to have an army of small creatures like Indulgent Aristocrat and Child of Night that can’t be blocked most of the time because they will have the skulk ability when you have Behind the Scenes on the battlefield.

You can play Mortify or Anguished Unmaking to kill one of his creatures. Some time you will want to kill the smaller creature he has so your creatures can’t be blocked(skulk). You can destroy the enchantment Always Watching with it if needed.
Finish him off with attacks from your small creatures.

If you don’t find Behind the Scenes or can’t help you very much, you will win with the support of cards like Markov Dreadnight and Drogskol Cavalry.
Finish him off with attacks from your big flying creatures.

Notes on some of your cards:

Most of your creatures have lifelink.

Indulgent Aristocrat‘s ability can be used to get a +1/+1 counter on your vampires by sacrificing a creature and paying 2 mana and can be ued while blocking or attacking too.

Nearheath Chaplain can be exiled from your graveyard for 3 mana to get 2 1/1 spirits onto the battlefield.

Odric, Lunarch Marshal is a ridiculously powerful card.

Notes on some of your opponent’s cards:

Inner Struggle can force Vampire Knighthawk to kill itself because it has deathtouch.

Eldritch Moon (Part 1 of 2)

Duel 1
Drownyard Cultists

Mulligan or Restart for 1-2 small creatures, Crippling Chill, Nebelgast Herald, Journey to Nowhere and Sanctifier of Souls or Dungeon Geists and Niblis of Frost. If you can find Sleep keep it too.

Wildsize is always good. You could focus your mulligan on Wildsize and small creatures. Sometimes it can make the match a lot easier depending on what he plays and how he blocks.

Slayer’s Plate is good but it can be too slow sometimes. If you want you can try to have more creatures like Timberland Guide(humans) to make it more effective.

He will try to be aggressive(not always very fast) by playing creatures like Graf Rats, Enlightened Maniac and Field Creeper until he can play his big creatures with the Emerge ablity. Creatures like Wretched Gryff and Abundant Maw.

He will kill some of your creatures with spells like Bone Splinters and Certain Death. He could also return a creature to his owner’s hand with Drag Under.

Some of his creatures and spells will burn your HP directly. Skirsdag Supplicant, Abundant Maw and Certain Death can make you lose life while he gains life.

You will try to have an army of humans and spirits by playing creatures like Timberland Guide, Nebelgast Herald, Sanctifier of Souls(and using his ability) and spells like Spectral Reserves.

You will try to have more creatures on the battlefield if possible and when you don’t, you will tap some of his creatures with the Crippling Chill instant spell(try to play it before he attacks) and abilities from creatures like Niblis of Frost, Dungeon Geists and Nebelgast Herald.
You can also tap them to be able to attack safely.

[While [i]Nebelgast Herald[/i] is on the battlefield all your spirits that enter the battlefield enable it to tap a creature. This can save you by tapping some of his creatures before he attacks or can help you attack by tapping some of his creatures before he can block. You can do this on his turn also by using Sanctifier of Souls‘s ability and/or playing another Nebelgast Herald(flash).]

Note: some of your spells and abilities can tap a creature for that turn and make it unable to untap on his next turn. Be careful which creatures you want to tap this way if you have 2 options.

You can exile one of his powerful creatures with Journey to Nowhere.
Sometimes it’s good to use it on Skirsdag Supplicant because it could make you lose 2 life every turn.
You can also exile Chittering Host if he manages to summon it.

Use Wildsize effectively by attacking with a small creature to try to bait him to block it and destroy it. Can also be used while you block.

You can finish the match with attacks from flying creatures and/or with Sleep, Slayer’s Plate and Inspiring Captain.

Notes on some of your cards:

Slayer’s Plate ability can also be combined with Nebelgast Herald‘s ability when your equipped creature dies(if it’s a human).

Notes on some of your opponents cards:

Graf Rats and Midnight Scavengers can be melded to make the very powerful Chittering Host if he controls both at the beginning of combat on his turn.
This is not a transformation.

Duel 2
Werewolf Horrors

Mulligan or Restart for Murder, Cruel Revival, Fleshbag Marauder, Graf Harvest, Cryptbreaker and Gavony Unhallowed.
Diregraf Colossus is always good. If you can find it, you can make a huge army of zombies very fast if he stays on the battlefield.

He will play wolf creatures like Timberpack Wolf and werewolf creatures like Tangleclaw Werewolf and Conduit of Storms until he has enough mana to transform them to powerful Eldrazi Werewolves and Horrors.
He might transform one directly by playing the spell Waxing Moon.

Some of his creatures can give him mana. Try to kill creatures like Ulvenwald Captive and Conduit of Storms first with Murder and Cruel Revival or when you can force him to sacrifice one with Fleshbag Marauder.

He can also play spells like Otherworldy Outburst in combat. (this gives a creature +1 power and wheen it dies he gets a 3/2 token creature).

You will try to overwhelm him with an army of zombies and zombie token creatures by playing creatures like Cryptbreaker, Wailing Ghoul, Gavony Unhallowed and use the abilites of some of them to get token zombies.

Kill his most powerful werewolves by playing spells like Murder.

Finish the match with attacks from your creatures while having the Graf Harvest enchantment on the battlefield(it gives your zombies menace).

Duel 3
Gideon and Chandra

Mulligan or Restart for Ulvenwald Captive, Primal Druid, Foul Emissary, Murder and Emrakul’s Influence.
Graf Rats and Kessig Prowler are good to have small creatures for the first 2 turns.

He will be aggressive by playing many human creatures like Elite Vanguard and Glory Seeker and some elemental red creatures like Regathan Firecat and Pyre Hound.
He will try to win by making them more powerful with cards like Inspiring Captain and Borrowed Grace.

He will kill some of your creatures with spells like Spreading Flames and Bloodpyre Elemental‘s ability. Keep in mind he can use Blessed Alliance and Borrowed Grace in combat to turn a fight in his favor.

You will play your small creatures like Primal Druid and Ulvenwald Captive and try to not take too much damage. On the next turn you can play some werewolves and Foul Emissary to get more creatures and Emrakul’s Influence enchantment to get ready to summon big Eldrazi creatures with Emerge like It of the Horrid Swarm and Distended Mindbender.
(when you can play a creature for the emerge cost and sacrifice Foul Emissary to do it while Emrakul’s Influence is on the battlefield you will get a 3/2 token creature and 2 cards)

Transform your werewolves when you can’t play a big Eldrazi creature.

You will win with your big creatures and you can finish the match with molding Graf Rats and Midnight Scavengers to Chittering Host(giving your creatures menace and +1+0) or by playing
Decimator of the Provinces to give all your creatures +2+2 and trample.

Notes for some of your cards:

You can attack with Primal Druid even if his power is 0. This is useful to prevent Blessed Alliance from forcing you to sacrifice a powerful creature. Try to attack with 2+ creatures always if you have Primal Druid.

When you play Midnight Scavengers you can return a creature with converted mana cost 3 or less from your graveyard to your hand. It’s good to play it after you sacrifice Foul Emissary.

Eldritch Moon (Part 2 of 2)

Duel 4
Thraben Mob

Mulligan or Restart for Dark Salvation, Liliana, the Last Hope, Journey to Nowhere and/or Murder, Sigardian Priest and/or Elite Vanguard.
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar and Oath of Liliana are always good.

He will play human creatures like Paranoid-Parish Blade and Stern Constable. Some of his creatures like Desperate Sentry and Extricator of Sin can give him 3/2 Eldrazi Horror creature tokens.
When he can, he will play angel creatures like Bruna, the Fading LIght.
His ultimate plan is to summon Brisela, Voice of Nightmares.

He will exile some of your creatures with Angelic Purge. He will also play Choking Restraints(aura) on some of your creatures.
He can help some of his creatures get more powerful with auras like Lunarch Mantle or equipment like Shard of Broken Glass.

You will try to have an army of humans and zombies by playing creatures like Elite Vanguard, Sigardian Priest, Crow of Dark Tidings and Haunted Dead.

Play Liliana, the Last Hope and Dark Salvation as soon as possible, so you can have many creatures to be able to block and attack. Even if you get 1 zombie from Dark Salvation, it can be really helpful if you can kill one of his creatures.

When you have enough creatures play Collective Effort to give them a +1+1 counter or Gideon, Ally of Zendikar using his ultimate ability right away.

Exile his most powerful creatures with Journey to Nowhere or kill them with Murder.
You can tap some of his angels and Eldrazis with Sigardian Priest when needed.

Finish the game with attacks from your numerous creatures or with spells like Borrowed Grace(this can give +2+0 and/or +2+2 to all your creatures).

Notes on some of your cards:

Liliana, the Last Hope‘s second ability and some other cards can get cards from your library to your graveyard. You have some cards that use the graveyard(or have abilities that can be used while in your graveyard) like Nearhearth Chaplain, Gryff’s Boon and Haunted Dead.

Notes on some of your opponent’s cards:

Bruna, the Fading Light can return an angel or human creature from his graveyard to the battlefield. This could also make summoning Brisela, Voice of Nightmares(meld) possible if he has Gisela, the Broken Blade in his graveyard.

Subjugator Angel can tap all your creatures.

Duel 5
Emrakul

Mulligan or Restart for Fleshbag Marauder, Diregraf Colossus, Dark Salvation, Murder and/or Cruel Revival, Dranau Corpse Trawler and/or small creatures like Screeching Skaab and Cryptbreaker.
Jayce, Unraveler of Secrets, Liliana, the last Hope and Gisa and Geralf are always good.

He will play small creatures like Graf Rats and Field Creeper and creatures that can give him Eldrazi tokens like Foul Emissary and Enlightened Maniac until he can play his big Eldrazi creatures like Abundant Maw and Decimator of the Provinces.
He could also play some other powerful creatures that can transfrom like Grizzled Angler and Voldaren Pariah.

He will kill some of your creatures with spells like Certain Death and return some of them to your hand with spells like Drag Under(this can also kill a creature token).

You will again try to have an army of zombie creatures by playing creatures like Cryptbreaker, Diregraf Colossus and Draunau Corpse Trawler.

Kill some of his more powerful creatures with Murder or Cruel Revival and remove some of his Eldrazi token creatures with Compelling Deterrence and Jayce, Unraveler of Secrets‘s second ability.

Draw cards when possible with Cryptbreaker or Jayce, Unraveler of Secrets first ability.
Play Dark Salvation as early as possible depending on the state of the battlefield or to kill a huge Eldrazi creature when you have many zombies.

Finish the match with attacks.

Notes on some of your cards:

Noosegraf Mob can give you many zombie token creatures.

When Gisa and Geralf is on the battlefield under your control, you can play a zombie from your graveyard as if it were in your hand.

Notes on some of your opponent’s cards:

Emrakul’s Evangel can give him many 3/2 Eldrazi token creatures if you let it.

Kaladesh (Part 1 of 2)

Duel 1
Elvish LIfecrafter

Mulligan or Restart for Thopter Engineer, Reckless Fireweaver and Inventor’s Goggles. Any other small creatures can also be good to be able to use them for the Crew ability of Bomat Bazaar Barge (if you have one of this in your hand too it’s perfect)
Chief of the Foundry is always good.

You can also try to play with an army of thopters and mulligan for Thopter Engineer, Chief of the Foundry , Whirler Rogue etc.

He will play mostly Fabricate creatures like Peema Outrider and Glint-Sleeve Artisan. This ability can help him make an army of many small creatures or some medium to big ones fast.

He will try to overwhelm you with his army. Do not block unless your creature can survive or you absolutely have to.

You will try to have some creatures to be able to tap them to use the Crew ability of Bomat Bazaar Barge and other artifacts.
Reckless Fireweaver and Inventor’s Apprentice will help a lot if you have them in your starting hand.
Keep Inventor’s Goggles on your Thopter Engineer (usually) to protect him so all your artifact creatures can have haste.
The plan is to attack with a 5/5 or a bigger creature as fast as possible while keeping most of your other creatures in defense.

You can kill some of his creatures with Welding Sparks or Reclusive Artificer.
-If you play with thopters, kill his Highspire Artisan (has Reach) with Welding Sparks instead of a bigger creature.

Finish him with more attacks from big creatures and/or thopters.

Notes on some of your cards:

Whirler Rogue‘s ability can help you win faster.
Tap 2 artifacts after you activate your artifacts’ Crew ability to make an unblockable 5/5 Bomat Bazaar Barge or even a 10/7 Demolition Stomper.

Reckless Fireweaver deals 1 damage to the opponent every time you get an artifact in play.

Chief of the Foundry is your most important creature if you plan to win with an army of thopters.

Notes on some of your opponent’s cards:

Armorcraft Judge‘s ability can draw him many cards.

Duel 2
Dovin Baan

Mulligan or Restart for Aethertorch Renegade, Maulfist Doorbuster, Flames of the Firebrand or/and Fiery Impulse or creatures with haste like Lathnu Hellion and Brazen Scourge.
Akoum Firebird and Ravaging Blaze are always good.

He will try to win with an army of flying creatures like Sky Skeef, Dukhara Peafowl.
Sometimes he can have many small creatures like Eager Construct and sometimes he plays every turn a creature with 3 to 5 toughness like Guardian Automaton and Bastion Mastodon.

Some of his creatures will help him gain life, e.g. Cloudblazer.

You will try to have as many creatures with haste as possible while killing his creatures with spells or use your creatures’ many abilities with energy to get past his defenses.

Play Maulfist Doorbuster as soon as you can to make every turn a creature unable to block.
Kill some of his creatures with Flames of the Firebrand and Fiery Impulse.
If he starts with small creatures they will be an easy target for your spells and you can attack safely every turn.
If he has the bigger creatures like Dukhara Peafowl, you will use Maulfist Doorbuster‘s ability to be able to damage the opponent. Save energy for that ability if you can.
Play Aethertorch Renegade on turn 3 if you have it to get 4 energy early in the game.

If he plays Janjeet Sentry, kill him fast because he can tap or untap any creature.

Finish him with attacks and/or Ravaging Blaze(with Spell Mastery) or Aethertorch Renegade‘s second ability.

Notes on some of your cards:

If you have Ruinous Gremlin you can sacrifice to to destroy an artifact. Most of his creatures are artifacts.

Spontaneous Artist can help you win faster because it can give any of your creatures haste by paying 1 energy.

You can combine Aethertorch Renegade‘s first ability (1 damage to a creature) with Flames of the Firebrand and other spells or blocking creatures in combat to finish off a creature. This helps a lot because the AI accounts for it and won’t block at all sometimes.

Notes on some of your opponent’s cards:

Cloudblazer gains him 2 life and draws him 2 cards

Eager Construct can help you get the cards you want faster. When he plays it you can Scry 1

Duel 3
Captain Baral

Mulligan or Restart for dual lands like Timber Gorge, small creatures like Voltaic Brawler and Longtusk Cub and spells like Harnessed LIghtining and Appetite for the Unnatural.
Attune with Aether and Servant of the Conduit are good to have if you don’t have all the lands you need.

He will mostly play defensive creatures like Thriving Turtle, Steel Wall and Hightide Hermit. Some of them can attack if he has energy. He could also play some flying creatures like Welkin Tern and Snare Thopter.
He will try to win slowly but surely with attacks from flying creatures like Welkin Tern or creatures that have a lot of toughness like Thriving Turtle.

He will use Deadlock Trap to tap some of your creatures. Destroy it with Appetite for the Unnatural. He will also may draw many cards with Divination and Filigree Familiar.
Keep in mind he sometimes can play Cancel.

You will play Longtusk Cub or Voltaic Brawler at turn 2 if possible, using their abilities wiith energy to make them more powerful. Later you will have bigger creatures with trample like Arborback Stomper and Territorial Gorger.
You will try to attack every turn with creatures that can kill the opponent’s creatures if blocked and do extra damage with trample.

Kill some of his creatures with Harnessed LIghtning when needed (save as much energy from it as possible). Kill Thriving Turtle as fast as possible.

Finish him with attacks.

Notes on some of your cards:

Appetite for the Unnatural can also be used to kill an artifact creature like Gold-Forged Sentinel.

Territorial Gorger gets +2+2 from each source that gives you energy that turn. If you get x (say 4) from one source it will get +2+2 one time. If you get x (say 2) from one source, x (say 2) from another and x (say 3) from another it will get +2+2 3 times (3 sources, +6+6 total).

Furious Reprisal can help a lot in this game to kill some of his tougher creatures if you combine it with Harnessed LIghtning and your attacks.

Harnessed LIghtning can only target creatures. You can also use it sometimes just to gain energy.(you can choose to pay 0)

Notes on some of your opponent’s cards:

Aether Meltdown can be played as an instant (has Flash).
You can destroy it with Appetide for the Unnatural if needed.

Thriving Turtle can become very powerful if you let it.

Kaladesh (Part 2 of 2)

Duel 4
Pia Nalaar

Mulligan or Restart for Smuggler’s Copter, Syndicate Trafficker and/or Dhund Operative and Filigree Familiar and Murder.
It’s good if one of your lands is Foundry of the Consuls.
Contraband Kingpin is always good.

She will play aggressively with many creatures like Inventor’s Apprentice and Spireside Infiltrator. She will play some bigger creatures (vehicles) like Ovalchase Dragster(haste) and she will probably also play Reckless Fireweaver that deals 1 damage to you every time she plays an artifact.

She will kill some of your creatures with spells like Fateful Showdown (this can damage you if she wants)

She will kill you very fast if don’t have anything to be able to defend and counter-attack soon.

You will use anything you can to stay alive and be able to win later.

Steel Wall can help have a defender from the first turn.
At turn 2 you can play Syndicate Trafficker or Dhund Operative or Smuggler’s Copter.

You will use most of your early creatures to block some of the damage and kill some of her creatures. If you can play Filigree Familiar on turn 3 you will get 2 life which can be very important in this match and when you block with it you will also draw a card if it dies.

Try to save Smuggler’s Copter and Syndicate Trafficker for as long as possible to be able to make use of their abilities.(see notes)
Sacrifice Foundry of the Consuls and/or play Whirler Rogue to get 2 thopters. You can use them to activate Smuggler’s Copter‘s ability every turn and/or sacrifice them to activate Syndicate Trafficker‘s ability when needed.

Kill some of her more powerful creatures with Murder. To kill vehicles use it when they attack.
Use Aether Tradewinds if you don’t have Murder.

Finish him with attacks and/or Marionette Master‘s ability.

Notes on some of your cards:

Charcoal Diamond and Sky Diamond can help to have the mana you need and they are also artifacts. Underhanded Designs can also kill a creature if you have many artifacts.

Smuggler’s Copter draws you a card every time it block or attacks. You also discard a card but it can help a lot to find the cards you need to win. It’s cheap to activate (Crew 1) and also has flying.

Syndicate Trafficker is a very powerful card when you can activate it’s ability.
You can pay 1 mana and sacrifice an artifact any time to get a +1+1 counter and be indestructible for the turn. You can use him to block forever if you have enough artifacts.
Keep in mind you can sacrifice any artifact creature or any other artifact’s like Alchemist’s Vial or even equipment (no equipment in this match though).

Notes on some of your opponent’s cards:

Speedway Fanatic can give haste to any vehicle if he is tapped to crew it.

Duel 5
Tezzeret & Dovin

Mulligan or Restart for Dynavolt Tower, Appetite for the Unnatural, Empereal Voyager and/or Whirler Virtuoso and as many different color lands as possible.

You can also try to start with mana acceleration cards like Attune with Aether and Servant of the Conduit.
Architecht of the Untamed , Aether Meltdown and Harnessed Lightning are always good.

If you get a hand with Jace, Unraveler of Secrets or Glimmer of Genius try to keep it if it’s playble. Your deck also has Chandra, Torch of Defiance and Nissa, Vital Force.

He will probably play Servo Exhibition that gives him 2 artifact creature tokens and play Chief of the Foundry soon after along with other small creatures until he can play some very dangerous artifact creatures like Torrential Gearhulk, Noxious Gearhulk, Cataclysmic Gearhulk and Skysovereign, Consul Flagship(vehicle).

He can win easily with his army especially if he has Chief of the Foundry if you don’t have good blockers.
Kambal, Consul of Allocation is one of his most dangerous creatures without having to attack. Be careful not to lose from its ability.(see note)

He will kill some of your creatures with spells like Tidy Conclusion and abilities of some of his creatures. He will also make some of your creatures unable to attack with the Revoke Privileges enchantment-aura.

You will try to have enough mana and energy to control the game but you will also need to have some good creatures to block in the first turns like Whirler Virtuoso and Empereal Voyager.

Play Dynavolt Tower as soon as possible to be able to deal 3 damage every turn to a creature or the opponent if you have enough energy (5) It also gives you 2 energy every time you play an instant or sorcery. Combined with the energy you get from most of your creatures, you will never have a problem to activate the abilities you need.

Later you can play creatures like Bristling Hydra and Aethersquall Ancient and Planeswalkers.

Kill some of his most powerful creatures with Appetite for the Unnatural (try to save it for those hulks)
Use Aether Meltdown to make a creature “useless”(-4 power) at instant speed.

Kill Kambal, Consul of Allocation and Chief of the Foundry as soon as you can with Dynavolt Tower or Harnessed LIghting.

Finish him with attacks, Planeswalker abilities and/or Dynavolt Tower.
Sometimes you can win just by attacking with flying creatures he can’t block or just by dealing 3 damage every turn with Dynavolt Tower if none can attack.

Notes on some of your cards:

Bristling Hydra‘s ability can give it hexproof. Use it if he tries to kill it with a sell or ability.

Architect of the Untamed can give you a 6/6 creature token if you pay 8 energy. If you have enough energy you can get as many 6/6 creatures as you want in the same turn.

Notes on some of your opponent’s cards:

Kambal, Consul of Allocation can make you lose by yourself if you are not careful. It deals 2 damage to you every time you play anything that isn’t a creature (except lands). It also gives him 2 life every time this happens.

Cataclysmic Gearhulk has a similar effect to Tragic Arrogance. When it enters the battlefield every player has to choose 1 creature, 1 artifact, 1 enchantment and 1 planeswalker and sacrifice everything else except lands. In most matches this might help you more than him.

Torrential Gearhulk has flash and when it’s played he can cast an instant or sorcery from his graveyard.

Noxious Gearhulk can destroy a creature when it enters the battlefield.

Skysovereign, Consul Flagship deals 3 damage to a creature or planeswalker when it’s played and whenever it attacks.

Aether Revolt (Part 1 of 3)

Duel 1
Dovin Baan

Mulligan or Restart for Banishing Light , Aerial Responder , Daredevil Dragster and
Call for Unity.

Other creatures like Aethergeode Miner and Greenwheel Liberator can also be good for the beginning but you must have Banishing Light to not let the opponent overwhelm you or Aidrop Aeronauts to gain 5 life (with revolt) when possible.

Restoration Specialist , Renegade Map and Unbridled growth are always good.
Your deck also contains Ajani Unyielding! He costs 6 mana but it can be worth it if you can find him.

He will try to have an army of artifact creatures most of the time by playing Master Trinketeer(can create tokens) and other creatures like Eager Construct Trophy Mage and the Mobile Garrison vehicle. He will also get tokens by playing the Servo Exhibition spell.

He will try to win with attacks while tapping your creatures with spells like Take into Custody
and the ability of Pacification Array. He can also retun some of your creatures to your hand with Voidwielder‘s ability.

He can draw many cards with Implement of Examination.

You will try to take advantage of the revolt ability of your cards to win.
You will also many times need to survive and maybe get really low on life.
This can be a slow match.

Play Renegade Map and Unbridled growth whenever you have spare mana. You will probably never have a mana problem. Don’t sacrifice them if not needed. Wait for the turn you can do it to activate the revolt abilities of your other cards.

Play Aerial Responder (flying, vigilance, lifelink) on turn 3 if possible. Later you can start activating revolt abilities almost every turn.
The most powerful one is on the Call for Unity enchantment. Play this on turn 5 if you have it.
Your creatures will get +1+1 for each counter on Call for Unity.

Use Banishing Light on Master Trinketeer as soon as you can.

If you have Daredevil Dragster it will help you to have a 4/4 creature available to attack or block after he taps some of your creatures(and/or remain tapped)
After you attack or block 2 times with it you will have to sacrifice it and you will draw 2 cards. This will also be another revolt activator.

Use Restoration Specialist‘s ability to get back Renegade Map or Daredevil Dragster and Unbridled growth. A good combo is to use Renegade Rallier‘s revolt ability to bring back Restoration Specialist and repeat when needed.

Finish him with attacks and/or with attacks from flying creatures.

Notes on some of your cards:

Renegade Rallier can bring any permanent card that costs 2 mana or less from your graveyard to the battlefield including lands.

Ajani Unyielding‘s second ability can turn a losing match to a winning one. You can exile a creature and get life equal to its power(any creature you want including your own)

Solemn Recruit could probably sometimes win you the game “alone”. She has double strike and his revolt ability gives her a +1+1 counter possibly every turn.

Aethergeode Miner can help you survive by blocking without losing it in combat if you have energy to activate his ability. He can also negate the tap on it from the opponent’s spells because you exile it and the spell has no target. It will also activate revolt.

Evolving Wilds also activates revolt when you sacrifice it to get a land.

Notes on some of your opponent’s cards:

NIght Market Guard can block 2 creatures

Mobile Garrison untaps a creature or artifact its owner controls every time it attacks.

Duel 2
Consulate

Mulligan or Restart for Chandra’s Pyrohelix and/or Unlicensed Disintegration, Reckless Fireweaver, Thopter Engineer and/or Pia Nalaar and Freejam Regent.

You can also try to mulligan for Yahenni, Undying Partisan(see note). He can almost win the game for you by himself sometimes but 1 Thopter Arrest could destroy this plan.

Renegade Map is always good.

He will play creatures like Sram, Senior Edificer, Ninth Bridge Patrol and Toolcraft Exemplar and Master Trinketeer. Most of them synergize well with artifacts and/or get other bonuses or generate artifact creature tokens.

He will try to win with his army and he will probably have many creatures on the battlefield already by turn 3. This also helps him have always creatures able to block.

He will exile some of your creatures with Thopter Arrest. It can be very annoying when he has plays 2 and sometimes 3 of those but if you keep having creatures in defense and block only when needed it will not be so important. He could also kill some of your artifact creatures with Fragmentize.

You will start building your own army by playing creatures like Reckless Fireweaver and Thopter Engineer or Pia Nalaar until you can play Freejam Regent. If you played Renegade Map on turn 1 don’t use it unless really needed. You need to have enough artifacts to activate the improvise ability of Freejam Regent.

The plan is to mostly attack with flying creatures, thopters and Freejam Regent.
Sweatworks Brawler(menace) and Fen Hauler(can’t be blocked by artifacts) can also help a lot when you don’t have Freejam Regent.
You will have other creatures in defense so he can’t attack all the time.

Kill some of his most important creatures with Chandra’s Pyrohelix and Unlicenced Disintegration.
If you have Chandra’s Pyrohelix early in the match you can try to use it in combat by attacking with a creature like Thopter Engineer right after he plays say Master Trinketeer, he will surely block with it and you can probably kill 2 of his creatures with Chandra’s Pyrohelix this way.

Finish him with attacks, Freejam Regent‘s ability(+2+0 for 2 mana any number of times) when it attacks, Walking Ballista‘s ability and or other spells and abilities if he has very low life.

Notes on some of your cards:

Walking Ballista can help you kill many creatures if you have a lot of mana to give it enough counters. It deals 1 damage to target creature or player for every +1+1 counter you remove from it. It’s better if you are able to cast it with many counters because to add other +1+1 counters on it you have to pay 4 mana for each every time.
You can also deal the extra damage needed to finish off your opponent with this ability.

Yahenni, Undying Partisan is a very powerful legendary creature. Whenever an opponent’s creature dies he gets a +1+1 counter. You can sacrifice a creature any time to make him indestructible and he also has haste.
You can attack with him every turn if you want and if you have enough creatures to sacrifice he can get bigger every turn and kill most of the opponent’s creatures.
He can also be an immortal blocker.
Remember he will get a +1+1 counter when an opponent’s creature dies from any source.

Vengeful Rebel‘s revolt ability can give a creature -3-3.

Notes on some of your opponent’s cards:

Ninth Bridge Patrol can become very powerful but don’t be afraid of it unless you are low on life.

Sram, Senior Edificer can draw him many cards.

Toolcraft Exemplar can be his most dangerous creature when he has many artifacts.

Aether Revolt (Part 2 of 3)

Duel 3
Chandra

Mulligan or Restart for Sram, Senior Edificer and/or Trophy Mage or Trusty Companion, Peacewalker Colossus and/or Aethersphere Harvester, Aerial Modification and/or Sram’s Expertise and Caught in the Brights.

Aether Meltdown, Cloudblazer and Baral’s Expertise are always good.
Your deck is very powerful so most of the time any combination can work if you survive the first few turns. It also contains Angel of Invention, Sky Sovereign, Consul Flagship and Cataclysmic Gearhulk.

She will play creatures that use enrgy like Whirler Virtuoso and Aether Swooper that can give her token artifact creatures and/or creatures like Thriving Grubs and Scrapper Champion that use energy to get more powerful. She could also play creatures like Sweatworks Brawler and Barricate Breaker that use improvise to be cast earlier. She will also play cards that can damage you directly like Hungry Flames.

She will try to burn you with attacks from her creatures and damage from spells like Hungry Flames, the artifact Implement of Combustion, some abilities of her creatures and even the first ability of Chandra, Torch of Defiance.

She will kill some of your creatures with Chandra’s Revolution, Hungry Flames and Chandra, Torch of Defiance.

You will play creatures like Trusty Companion, Sram, Senior Edificer and Trophy Mage and spells like Sram’s Expertise to be able to crew the vehicles you’ll play later.

Play Peacewalker Colossus and Aethersphere Harvester as soon as possible. Peacewalker Colossus can turn a vehicle artifact you have to a creature without having to crew it by paying 2 mana (one of them white). This could also help you win faster when combined with Consulate Dreadnaught that costs 1 mana and has crew 6.
You can also turn a vehicle to a creature permanently with the Aerial Modification aura.

Aethersphere Harvester could be needed to gain you some life. You can pay 1 energy to give it lifelink. This opponent can never win if you gain some life every turn.

When you have 5 mana available you can play your other powerful creatures and vehicles like Angel of Invention, Sky Sovereign, Consul Flagship.

You can draw many cards if you have Sram, Senior Edificer on the battlefield each time you play an Aura or Vehicle. You can also play Reverse Engineer to draw 3 cards.

Use Caught in the Brights or Aether Meltdown especially at the first turns to be able to survive until you can have more mana by making some of her creatures useless.
Otherwise use them on his most powerful creatures.

Play Baral’s Expertise to return 3 of her creatures to her hand. Try to use it when you can make a good attack.

Finish with attacks and/or attacks from flying creatures.

Notes on some of your cards:

Bastion Inventor has hexproof and while it costs 6 mana it can be cast for 4 mana or less with improvise. He can be useful because he can’t be targeted by the opponent’s spells.

Sram’s expertise lets you cast a 3 or less mana cost card from your hand without paying its mana cost.

Notes on some of your opponent’s cards:

Chandra’s Revolution deals 4 damage to a creature and also taps one land that also remains tapped for a turn.

Scrapper Champion has double strike.

Aether Revolt (Part 3 of 3)

Duel 4
Liliana

Mulligan or Restart for Alchemist’s Vial or Steel Wall, Master of Etherium and/or Chief of the Foundry, Filigree Familiar or Whirler Rogue and Murder.
Tezzeret’s Touch and Battle at the Bridge are always good.

Tezzeret the Schemer, Noxious Gearhulk and Herald of Anguish are your most powerful cards. If you want you can try to have one of them in your starting hand.

She will build an army of zombies as always by playing creatures like Nantuko Husk, Black Cat, Shambling Ghoul and Shambling Goblin and later Soulless One, Diregraf Colossus and sometimes Grave Titan!
She could also play creatures like Yahenni, Undying Partisan and Night Market Aeronaut.
She will try to overwhelm you with her army and with a possibly huge Soulless One or Diregraf Colossus.

She will kill some of your creatures with Fatal Push. Keep in mind that when revolt is activated for Fatal Push it can kill a creature up to 4 mana cost.
She can also kill some of your creatures with Vengeful Rebel‘s ability.

You will build an army of mostly artifact creatures. Play Steel Wall turn 1 if you have it and Alchemist’s Vial on turn 2. This way you will have 2 artifacts by turn 3 and a good defender.

Play Master of Etherium or Chief of the Foundry or Filigree Familiar after to start having creatures that can attack and give your artifact creatures +1+1.
Sometimes it’s better to save Master of Etherium for later especially if you don’t have other artifacts on turn 3.

Filigree Familiar can help a lot because you get 2 life when you play it and draw a card when it dies.You could also play Tezzeret’s Touch on one of your artifacts (including Alchemist’s Vial) to have a powerful creature early.

If you can play Whirler Rogue next turn you will also have 2 2/2 thopters. You could also play Thopter Spy Network to get another artifact (thopter) every turn or start playing creatures and spells with improvise like Wind-Kin Raiders and Reverse Engineer.

Kill some of his most powerful creatures with Murder or Battle at the Bridge. Try to kill Nantuko Husk as soon as possible, sometimes even if you have to block and lose many creatures(this will force her to sacrifice some of his other creatures).
If you need to kill Yahenni, Undying Partisan try to kill him when he is alone to not be able to become indestructible.

Finish her with attacks and/or attacks from flying creatures.

Note: Remember to block only when necessary and save your artifacts to be able to make use of improvise.

Notes on some of your cards:

Battle at the Bridge has improvise. Remember to take into account the number of artifacts you have before you cast it. You could be able to play it for more damage.

Master of Etherium‘s power and toughness is equal to the number of artifacts you control. This is another reason to not block sometimes.
A simple trick is to make him bigger with a surprise sacrifice of Foundry of the Consuls.

Herald of Anguish is very powerful and incredibly powerful if you have many artifacts.
You can pay 2 mana(one of them black) and sacrifice an artifact to give a creature -2-2 for the turn and you can do it any times you want if you have enough mana and artifacts.

Tezzeret the Schemer‘s second ability can kill almost any creature(even indestructible ones) if you have many artifacts. It gives +x-x to a creature(x is the number of your artifacts). Sometimes you can use it to make one of your creatures have more power.

Whirler Rogue can make one of your creatures unblockable. Don’t forget to use it for some easy wins.

Tezzeret’s Touch can be very useful if used on an artifact that has enter the battlefield abilities like Alchemist’s Vial or an artifact that does something when it dies like Filigree Familiar.

Notes on some of your opponent’s cards:

Black Cat forces you to discard a random card when it dies.

Gravedigger can bring her back from the graveyard any of her dead creatures. You still have to kill creatures like Diregraf Colossus as soon as possible even if he plays all his Gravediggers after.

Gifted Aetherborn has deathtouch.

Duel 5
Tezzeret (40hp)

You start this match with the Heart of Kiran vehicle and a The Gatewatch has Your Back emblem. The emblem will get Gideon Jura on the battefield for you on turn 4 and Chandra, Torch of Defiance on turn 6.
He will start with the Planar Bridge artifact and a A Growing Spy Network emblem.
The emblem will get Thopter Spy Network on the battlefield for him on turn 2.

Mulligan or Restart for Audacious Infiltrator, Renegade Wheelsmith, Pyroclasm or Chandra’s Pyrohelix and Built to Last.
Gideon’s Avenger, Restoration Specialist and Siege Modification are always good.

He will build an army of mostly artifact creatures by playing cards like Steel Wall, Filigree Familiar, Ravenous Intruder and Weaponcraft Enthusiast until he can play his bigger creatures or use Planar Bridge to put one of them to the battlefield. Creatures like Herald of Anguish, Combustible Gearhulk and others, even a Darksteel Colossus!

He will destroy some of your creatures with spells like Welding Sparks.

You will try to win before something crazy happens with Planar Bridge although most of the time this match is easy.
If you can play Audacious Infiltrator on turn 2 you can crew and attack with Heart of Kiran right away. Also, Audacious Infiltrator can’t be blocked by artifact creatures so you can attack safely with him every turn. When Gideon Jura is on the battlefield you can attack with him too (3rd ability) and also activate Heart of Kiran‘s ability to be “crewd” by removing a loyalty counter from a planeswalker.

Attack every turn if possible. When Chandra, Torch of Defiance is on the battlefield you can use her second ability to get 2 red mana and be able to cast bigger creatures like Sun Titan and Inferno Titan.

Kill some (probably all) of his creatures with Pyroclasm while using Built to Last on some of yours to help them survive. Pyroclasm damages every creature.
You have many other red spells you can use like Chandra’s Fury and Chandra’s Ignition.

Finish him with attacks and/or spells.

Notes on some of your cards:

Renegade Wheelsmith makes a creature unable to block every time he becomes tapped. This means it also works when he attacks and when he is tapped to crew a vehicle.

Gideon’s Avenger can become very powerful every time you use Gideon Jura‘s first ability, especially if the opponent has many creatures to attack.

Notes on some of your opponent’s cards:

Ravenous Intruder. The AI can sometimes sacrifice Planar Bridge to activate its ability.

Dark Intimations. Not very important in this match.
This card references Nicol Bolas the dragon planeswalker. Blue Red and Black are his colors. Also Tezzeret is known to be an agent of Nicol Bolas. When the new Nicol Bolas is available, this card will be more powerful.
This spell has a similar effect (but much less powerful) to Cruel Ultimatum. The important thing about it is if you don’t have any creatures you must sacrifice a planeswalker if you have one and the spell’s owner will get his dead planeswalker to his hand if he wants.

Amonkhet (Part 1 of 3)

Duel 1
Trial of Solidarity

Try to have Plains and Mountain and/or Stone Quarry in your opening hand if possible. Your deck is White and Red.
Mulligan or Restart for small and exert creatures like Glory-Bound Initiate, Gust Walker, Devoted Crop-Mate or Honored Crop-Captain and spells like Magma Spray, Searing Spear and/or the enchantment Cast Out.

Glorybringer, Combat Celebrant and Trial of Solidarity are always good.
You can also try to keep Trueheart Twins and/or Onward/Victory. They can be very powerful when you can play them.

He will try to win with his army of mostly white creatures like Sacred Cat, Anointer Priest and Trueheart Duelist. Many of them have the embalm ability(he can exile the embalmed creature to put a token copy of it to the battlefield)

He will gain life with the abilities of some of his creatures like Sacred Cat (lifelink) and Anointer Priest (gains him 1 life every time he puts a token on the battlefield). Note it doesn’t matter even if he gets to 50 life. You have the ability to do a lot of damage with the right combination.

He can tap some of your creatures with Fan Bearer‘s ability. He will use Compulsory Rest on some of your creatures so they can’t attack or block.

You will try to win with your army of creatures and by taking advantage of their exert ability. When you choose to exert a creature as it attacks, it can’t untap on your next untap step and the creature gets a bonus. Creatures like Ahn-Crop Crasher, Trueheart Twins and Glorybringer are some of them.

Remember that if your creatures have vigilance you can exert them “for free” because they won’t tap when they attack. This is where Trial of Solidarity can be very powerful. Try to use it when you can attack with exert creatures.

Kill some of his more powerful creatures with Searing Spear and Magma Spray. Try to use Magma Spray or Cast Out on his more important creatures so they get exiled and he won’ t be able to make use of embalm.

Finish him with attacks or with a huge attack with Trueheart Twins and/or Onward/Victory.

Notes on some of your cards:

Trueheart Twins gives all your creatures +1+0 whenever you exert a creature. It also has exert. You can sometimes win with this. E.g. if you exert 3 creatures , all your creatures will get +1+0x3=+3+0.

Onward/Victory is another very powerful card. Onward can give a creature +x+0 where x is its power for the turn. When you can play Victory from your graveyard (aftermath) it gives a creature double strike for the turn.

Combat Celebrant‘s exert ability creates an additional combat phase so you can attack again and exert again your other creatures.

Cast Out has flash. It can be cast as an instant.

Notes on some of your opponent’s cards:

Compulsory Rest gives your enchanted creature the ability to pay 2 mana and sacrifice it to get 2 life. You can combie this with Devoted Crop-Mate‘s exert ability to get that creature back to the battlefield if it costs 2 or less mana.

Duel 2
Trial of Knowledge

SPOILER ALERT
This Trial is not a duel. It consists of 2 puzzles. It’s better if you try to solve them yourself.
If you can’t, read on for the walkthrough.

Puzzle 1
Kefnet’s First Trial

Use Vizier of Tumbling Sands‘s ability to untap another target permanent on the first Glyph Keeper.
Use Magma Spray on the second Glyph Keeper.
Those 2 spells/abilities will be countered by Glyph Keeper‘s ability.

Play Open into Wonder (x for 2 or 3) and target both the Glyph Keepers.

Attack with both Glyph Keepers for 10 damage. (they can’t be blocked)

Puzzle 2
Kefnet’s Second Trial

Play Thought Scour and target yourself. This will give you Psychic Spiral.
Play Traumatize and target yourself. You will now have 26 cards in your graveyard.
Use Sands of Delirium‘s ability on yourself and pay 4 mana. (30 cards in your graveyard.)
Play Psychic Spiral and target the opponent.
He will put all 30 of his cards in his graveyard and you win at his next draw step.

Amonkhet (Part 2 of 3)

Duel 3
Trial of Strength

Try to have Island and Forest and/or Woodland Stream or Hinterland Harbor in your opening hand if possible. Your deck is Blue and Green.
Mulligan or Restart for Rampant Growth, Mouth/Feed, Weaver of Currents and/or Bounty of the Luxa and/or Prowling Serpopard.

You could also try to start with Trial of Strength and Cartouche of Knowledge.
Arborback Stomper and Vizier of Many Faces and Vizier of the Menagerie are always good. Greater Sandwurm is good too for its cycle.

He will try to win with his army of creaures by playing cards like Runed Servitor, Daggerback Basilisk, Ornery Kudu, and Pouncing Cheetah.

He will play some spells in combat like Shed Weakness to make one of his creatures more powerful or Haze of Pollen to prevent all combat damage for a turn.

He could play the Rhona’s Monument artifact that can give one of his creatures +2+2 and trample whenever he plays a creature.
He could also play Rhonas the Indomitable, his most powerful creasture. It has the ability to give a creature he controls +2+0 and trample for 3 mana(one of them green).

You should block only when necessary to avoid losing your creatures to combat tricks. You might need to play defensive and build your army. If you block, block with 2 creatures when possible.

If you have Rampant Growth play it on turn 2 and then play your Weaver of Currents and Bounty of the Luxa to be able to play almost anything in later turns.

Otherwise you could play Mouth to get a 3/3 beast token creature and or Prowling Serpopard and Trial of Strength and Cartouche of Knowledge.
When you have 2-3 creatures with power 3 or more, you can play Feed form your graveyard to draw cards.

Try to use Vizier of Many Faces (or with embalm if it is in your graveyard) to copy Rhonas the Indomitable if he plays it.
If you copy Arborback Stomper you will gain another 5 life.

Eventually you will have many powerful creatures.
Finish him with attacks and/or attacks from flying creatures.

Notes on some of your cards:

Sandwurm Convergence can help you win fast if you can get enough mana accelaration to play it soon. You will get a 5/5 creature every turn.

Trial of Strength and Cartouche of Knowledge can be used for a combination. Each time you play Cartouche of Knowledge you get Trial of Strength to your hand and you can play that again.

Notes on some of your opponent’s cards:

Daggerback Basilisk has deathtouch.

Giant Spider is probably the only creature the opponent has that can block your flying creatures.

Duel 4
Trial of Ambition

Try to have Swamp and Forest and/or Foul Orchard or Woodland Cemetery in your opening hand if possible. Your deck is Blue and Green.
Mulligan or Restart for Nest of Scarabs, Baleful Ammit, Soulstinger, Defiant Greatmaw, Ultimate Price and/or Never/Return.
Prowling Serpopard and Exemplar of Strength are always good.

He will play mostly zombie creatures like Dread Wanderer, Shambling Ghoul and Plague Belcher.
Many creatures do something when they die like Doomed Dissenter(gives him a token creature zombie), Tattered Mummy(makes you lose 2 life), Festering Mummy(puts -1-1 counter on a creature).
He also has cards that can sacrifice one of his creatures like Devouring Swarm (can get +1+1 for a turn if he sacrifices a creature).

He will try to win with his creatures and with abilites of creatures like Plague Belcher and spells Painful Lesson(also draws him cards) like that make you lose life. This duel can be very difficult if he gets many flying creatures and/or “lose life” effects early.

He will kill some of your creatures with Bone Splinters and abilities from some of his creatures like Festering Mummy.

You will try to have your army of creatures to be able to defend and win by taking advantage of your cards that work with -1-1 counters.
You could also try to play first with simple creatures like Gutter Skulk and Prowling Serpopard.

If you have Nest of Scarabs on the battlefield you will get a 1/1 creature for every -1-1 counter you put on a creature. Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons does something similar.
Most of the creatures you play will put one or more -1-1 counters on a creature so every turn you will get possibly many token creatures.

Kill some of his creatures with Ultimate Price and/or Never and with placement of -1-1 counters from Soulstinger‘s and Decimator Beetle‘s abilities.

Play Return from your graveyard to exile a creature like Dread Wanderer from the opponent’s graveyard.

Finish him with attacks.

Note:
It can take some time to learn what creature to play first and where to put the -1-1 counters or which to remove. This duel is excellent for learning this kind of mechanics.

Notes on some of your cards:

Exemplar of Strength (when he attacks you remove a -1-1 counter from it to gain 1 life) and Baleful Ammit (lifelink) can help you survive.

Notes on some of your opponent’s cards:

Bone Picker is one of his most powerful creatures. It can be cast for just 1 black mana if a creature died that turn and has flying and deathtouch.

Bontu the Glorified can be killed if you can put enough -1-1 counters on it.

Cruel Reality enchantment aura can be devastating if you don’t have enough creatures to “counter” it. It costs 7 mana and forces you to sacrifice a creature each turn (lose 5 life if you don’t have creatures). This makes your token generation cards like Nest of Scarabs even more useful.

Amonkhet (Part 3 of 3)

Duel 5
Trial of Zeal

Try to have Mountain and Swamp and/or Cinder Barrens or Dragonskull Summit in your opening hand if possible. Your deck is Red and Black.
Mulligan or Restart for creatures like Dread Wanderer, Thresher LIzard, and/or Bloodrage Brawler and Lightning Bolt, Blightning and/or Magma Spray.
Insult/Injury is always good if you can discard it.

I think the most important card is Blightning for its discard effect. It helps a lot to stop the opponent from overwhelming you with his creatures and spells.

He will play creatures like Battlefield Scavenger, Embermaw Hellion and Heart-Piercer Manticore. He will try to kill your creatures with spells like Electrify, Twin Bolt and Deem Worthy and Magma Spray so he can deal damage to you with his creatures.

He will also deal direct damage to you with spells like Twin Bolt.

He could draw some cards by playing Tormenting Voice or cycle his Desert Cerodon. He could also draw and discard a card with some of his other cards abilities like Hazoret’s Monument.

You will try to kill him as fast as possible by playing cheap creatures like Dread Wanderer and Bloodlust Inciter(he can give haste to a creature).

Later you can play creatures like Thresher Lizard and Grim Strider that get more powerful the less cards you have in your hand.

Play Blightning whenever you can so you force the opponent to have less cards to use against you.

Kill some of his creatures with spells like Lightning Bolt, Magma Spray and Cut.
It’s better to try to not let him have any creatures on the battlefield so he can’t take advantage of Heart-Piercer‘s ability.

Always remember that you can also win by doing enough damage with spells like Blightning Lightning Bolt, Ribbons and Insult.

Finish him with attacks and/or spells.

Notes on some of your cards:

Neheb, the Worthy is very powerful but most of the time he won’t survive(2 toughness)

Hazoret’s Favor can be very useful to force the opponent to block and to deal a lot of damage every turn(if you draw creatures) It gives haste to a creature and +2+0. You have to sacrifice it at the end of your turn. It’s also good combination with Dread Wanderer.

Insult doubles the damage of your spells and creatures for the turn. You can sometimes win with this. E.g. 2xLightning Bolt would deal 12 damage.

Notes on some of your opponent’s cards:

Deem Worthy deals 2 damage when it is cycled.

Warfire Javelineer deals damage equal to the number of instants and sorcery cards in his graveyard to a creature.

Sweltering Suns deals 3 damage to each creature.

Final Notes

Thanks to all who supported this guide. I hope it was helpful and maybe made the story more enjoyable.

Amonkhet is the last release for Magic Duels.
The new MTG “duels” game will be MTG Arena. I hope it will also include story mode and/or puzzles.

If you enjoy single player MTG like I do, I highly recommend playing some of the old MTG video games: Duels of the Planeswalkes and some old games that are not on Steam if you can find them.

See you in MTG Arena.