This compilation contains the 20 decks I created for
"Beat the Highscore! #1" and
"Beat the Highscore! #2" , where challengers try to beat 10 AI-like decks build around a certain theme one after another, having to face more and more ugrades as the number of their beaten decks increases.
This compilation probably mainly interests people that have played the challenge, as well as those that are thinking about joining "Beat the Highscore!" #2.5 (coming soon). However, I'm glad if other members also found it interesting. Please keep in mind though that these decks aren't supposed to be "perfect" - they are supposed to have a weakness, ideally somehow given away by their respective names, and I tried not to include too many cards and strategies that are considered lame. Now, here they are!
"Decks of Beat the Highscore!" #2DiscxrdHover over cards for details, click for permalink
4vl 4vl 4vl 4vl 50u 50u 50u 50u 50u 50u 50u 5ru 5ru 5ru 5ru 5ru 5ru 5v1 5v1 5v1 5v1 5v1 5v1 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 8ps9 - 36, 20% Win. Picked 19 times, on average as the 2.2th deck. Eliminated 2 challengers.
A nasty deck. Most people expected Discord, but not Discard (The combination of those two words is where the name comes from, something I'm quite proud of :p). Luckily for them, Sanctuary - which was surprisingly often used as a counter - counters both. Challengers that wanted to counter Discord with a rainbow deck had a harder time.
Graviton SquadHover over cards for details, click for permalink
55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55n 55n 55p 55p 55q 55q 55s 55s 55u 55u 55u 55u 562 562 562 563 563 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 8pl10 - 28, 26% Win. Picked 16 times, on average as the 4.7th deck. Eliminated 3 challengers.
A deck with a core of cards that was easy to guess, but some additions that were unexpected for certain challengers. Especially Gravity Shield hard countered at least one challenger.
GolemHover over cards for details, click for permalink
58q 58q 58q 58q 59m 59m 59m 59m 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5fa 5fa 5fa 5fa 5fu 5fu 5fu 5fu 8po5 - 25, 17% Win. Picked 13 times, on average as the 5.3th deck. Eliminated 1 challenger.
Golem, Golem and Golem, and nothing else. It lost to Dim Shield spam more often than I liked - I had thought that the anticipation of Fire would make challengers decide not to run a mono Aether or the like more often. Was still a fun deck to play for me due to its speed.
Hazardous IndustrializationHover over cards for details, click for permalink
5f6 5f6 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5ii 5ii 5ii 5ii 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5og 5og 5om 5om 5om 5om 5om 5om 8pr5 - 21, 19% Win. Picked 11 times, on average as the 5.3th deck. Eliminated 1 challenger.
An unusual trio. Steams are not really a good addition to UG, because you need a bit fast damage to finish your opponent after you've casted the few UG's you manage to draw, not slow high damage, so they were mainly chosen for lore reasons. It still did fine though, as most people were not able to guess what could possibly hide behind this - indeed rather cryptic - name.
NecromancerHover over cards for details, click for permalink
52i 52i 52i 52i 52i 52i 52k 52k 52n 52n 52n 52n 52r 52r 52r 52v 52v 52v 52v 52v 52v 534 534 534 61p 61p 61p 61p 61p 61p 8pk10 - 17, 37% Win. Picked 11 times, on average as the 6.1th deck. Eliminated 4 challengers.
Actually the most successful deck out of all 10. The Nymphs really helped triggering death effects, as you could endlessly transform a Skeleton into a Cell and back again, but it was surprisingly strong even without them. Also really fun to play.
Sanctuary in FlamesHover over cards for details, click for permalink
5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f5 5f5 5f6 5f6 5f6 5f7 5f7 5f8 5f8 5fb 5fb 5fb 5fb 5li 5li 5li 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 8po5 - 31, 14% Win. Picked 16 times, on average as the 3.6th deck. Eliminated 1 challenger.
The deck I like least out of all 10. I only included it because I am known for hating (and not playing) stalls, so I wanted to force myself to mix it up a bit, but I shouldn't have done it. The games took long and were no fun at all, just as one would expect from a stall. :p At least it was easily countered most of the time, almost everyone did expect a Fire/Light stall and bring a fitting counter.
PoseidonHover over cards for details, click for permalink
5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5ic 5ic 5ic 5ic 5ic 5ie 5ie 5ie 5ie 5ie 5og 5og 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 8pp6 - 18, 25% Win. Picked 11 times, on average as the 4.5th deck. Eliminated 2 challengers.
A fun and strong trio with Trident as its core card, as the name suggests. I should have called it 'God of the Sea' to make countering it a bit harder - clever people could have still expected Trident (Because Poseidon, which is the name of the upped version of Trident, is the god of the sea), and it also reveals its core Element: Water. As this deck does not only rely on Trident on its own, it still managed to win quite some games. Its hardest opponent definetly was the standard Immo rush, because not only does Immo counter Trident, but the growing Lava Golems are also very resistant to the Toadfish's poison.
Scorpion PitHover over cards for details, click for permalink
52u 52u 52u 52u 52u 52u 542 542 542 542 542 542 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c8 5c8 5uq 5uq 5uq 5uq 606 606 606 606 606 606 8pn2 - 30, 6% Win. Picked 15 times, on average as the 3.8th deck. Eliminated 0 challengers.
Result wise the weakest deck of this challenge, but actually it wasn't weak - it was only too easy to counter. Purify was, not surprisingly, the most common choice. This deck is also dependent on decent draws, but that was not a problem: If it got all the cards it needed, its damage really was ridicoulusly high. Well - against an opponent without Purify, that is.
SiegeHover over cards for details, click for permalink
55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55l 55l 55l 55l 55m 55m 55m 55m 561 561 561 595 595 595 595 595 595 8pm2 - 18, 10% Win. Picked 9 times, on average as the 4.1th deck. Eliminated 0 challengers.
This decks core card is Catapult, as hinted by the name. BB'd Armagios are thrown at the enemy, and Chargers (Who also fit right into this deck in my opinion, name wise) do the rest. Seldom picked and never hard countered, most competitors didn't really know what to expect here.
Voodoo RitualsHover over cards for details, click for permalink
4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vp 52r 55t 562 595 595 5c9 5fb 5fb 5ij 5om 5v0 5v0 5v0 5v0 5v0 5v0 61r 61r 61r 8pu9 - 21, 30% Win. Picked 12 times, on average as the 4.6th deck. Eliminated 3 challengers.
A Voodoo rainbow - fun! The strongest combination definetly were overdriven PU'd Dolls, but having a single UG deal 40 damage is fun as well. And needless to say, I never upped that Pandemonium...
Eternity and/or RT were probably the most common counters.
Additional stats-BtH #2 had 25 challengers, out of which 21 finished their challenge.
-The average amount of beaten decks was 5.5.
-The deck picked most often is Discxrd (19 times), followed by Graviton Squad (16), Sanctuary in Flames (16) and Scorpion Pit (15).
-The deck picked the least amount of times is Siege (9 times), followed by Hazardous Industrialization (11), Poseidon (11) and Voodoo Rituals (12).
-The deck with the highest win rate is Necromancer with 37%. Runner-up is Voodoo Rituals with 30%.
-Easiest deck to beat was Scorpion Pit, with a win rate of only 6%.
-The deck that got picked most early is Discxrd by far. (2.2th to be picked on average)
-Necromancer, however, seems to have scared the challengers. It got picked as the 6.1th deck on average.
"Decks of Beat the Highscore!" #1ChaosHover over cards for details, click for permalink
4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4ve 4ve 4ve 4vi 4vi 4vi 4vk 4vl 4vl 4vm 4vo 4vp 5ri 5ri 5ri 5ri 5ri 5ri 8psTotal Win-Loss: 4-4
A fun deck I loved to play. Sadly, because of the rather cryptic name, it was seldom chosen.
Lord of WeaponsHover over cards for details, click for permalink
4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vl 52q 5c5 5ic 5l8 5l8 5ll 5ll 5ll 5ll 5ll 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 5ur 5ur 61u 8pqTotal Win-Loss: 13-15
A strong deck that immensely profited from upgrades. Was almost always countered with Eternity and/or Reverse Time and still won many games.
EgyptHover over cards for details, click for permalink
5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rj 5rn 5rn 5rn 5ro 5rs 5rs 5rs 5rs 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61q 61q 61q 61q 8plTotal Win-Loss: 3-17
While everyone expected Pharaohs, noone expected Anubis' - which didn't really help this deck winning, though. Was countered differently almost every time, Fire Shield and Lobotomizers were two options I can remember.
Assault from BelowHover over cards for details, click for permalink
4t4 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58p 58p 58p 58p 590 590 590 590 591 591 591 593 593 593 5rr 5rr 8psTotal Win-Loss: 6-15
A strong deck that is the most "standard" out of all the ten decks I built for this challenge. However, the fact that every card used fits the "Earth" theme in general and "Burrow" in specific makes me quite content with it.
It was basically always hard countered with Wings and might have gained zero wins, if it were not for the EQ, which often surprised the challengers, sometimes totally shutting down said hard counters.
When Nature RagesHover over cards for details, click for permalink
5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bt 5bt 5bu 5bu 5c0 5c0 5c5 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c8 5c8 5fb 5fb 5fb 5fb 5fb 8poTotal Win-Loss: 5-11
A Life rush with Adrenaline and Rage Potions, as given away by the name. Opponents always feared Deflagration which would have enabled this deck to win more often, but I'm happy not to have included it.
SpellmasterHover over cards for details, click for permalink
4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vp 52o 52o 52o 52o 55v 593 5c2 5fb 5fb 5i7 5on 5on 5rk 5up 61r 61r 61r 8puTotal Win-Loss: 4-16
A funny deck, I think. The name doesn't come from using creatures with spelldamage or maybe Quintessence + SoW on the opponents creatures, as most challengers thought, but simply from containing nothing but spells (and Pillars). However, despite being misinterpreted often, this deck was still mostly countered by the opponents not using creatures, as they feared Quintessence + SoW. Without PU, this deck (almost) can't finish its opponent.
TranssylvaniaHover over cards for details, click for permalink
58s 58s 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5up 5uq 5ur 5us 5us 5ut 5ut 5ut 5uu 5uu 5uu 5uu 5uv 5uv 5uv 5uv 8pmTotal Win-Loss: 7-14
This decks theme is, obviously, vampires. However, not (only) Minor Vampires, but "Liquid Gargoyles", to mix it up a bit - thus the Earth splash.
Caught in a Spiders WebHover over cards for details, click for permalink
52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52j 52j 52j 52j 52j 52j 52o 52o 52o 52o 52p 52p 52q 52q 5oo 5oo 5oo 5oo 5oo 8prTotal Win-Loss: 2-16
A deck that is way stronger than its stats suggest. Especially after gaining only a few upgrades, this becomes dangerous. The Air quanta, which might seem tight with only a mark, was always sufficient.
The basic strategy was quite obvious, given this decks name, and normally well countered, which explains the stats.
Forest of White MagicHover over cards for details, click for permalink
5bt 5bt 5bv 5bv 5c0 5c0 5c0 5c2 5c2 5c3 5c3 5c5 5c5 5c6 5lc 5le 5li 5ll 5ll 5lm 5lm 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 8pnTotal Win-Loss: 7-9
This was the first deck ready for this challenge and originally intended as a new AI3 deck submission, albeit slightly altered. It is stallish, but no stall; it has different ways to win games depending on the draw, which is why I always found it entertaining to play.
Assault from AboveHover over cards for details, click for permalink
5lf 5lf 5lf 5lf 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5od 5od 5oe 5oe 5oe 5oe 5oh 5oh 5ok 5ok 5ok 5ok 5ok 5oo 5oo 5op 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 8prTotal Win-Loss: 3-9
Basically a friendly mono Air. Except for Blessing which was added for the not too usual triple combination Firefly - Wyrm - Blessing, all other cards were, as with most decks, chosen to fit the name. (Wings, Thunderstorm, Sky Blitz)
Probably wasn't challenged too often because there were more obvious counters to other decks.
