My arena deck did better than expected

[ElementalDearWatson]

There was a thread about arena decks you didn't expect to do as well as they did, but I can't find it now.

A few days ago I put up an arena deck - I got an Pendulum.  I do a thing where, to make Arena building more interesting and challenging, I use a RNG to make a number between 1 and 12 and have to incorporate the matching element, too.  I rolled .  So I threw together a deck consisting of Discord, Flying Weapon and Adrenaline, with Black Holes and a couple of Shards of Focus.

I was in a bit of a hurry at the time so, when I tested it 3 times and defeated it all 3 times, I thought I'd leave it up and come back and change it later.  When I did come back, it was winning 5-0, so I thought I'd leave it up.  Eventually, it ended up in 21st place with 23 wins to 1.  And yet almost every time I played against it to test it, I won.  It still seems like a badly constructed deck to me.  And, given that it's nearly off the bottom of Platinum 5 days after going up, it's obviously not the best deck in the world.

So, in lieu of being able to find the other thread on this subject - have you got any examples of decks you thought were going to do badly but which actually did well?

[dragonsdemesne]

I remember one time going up against this one player's platinum arena deck.  (not sure who it was)  It was 33-0 before I faced it, so I thought it was going to be really hard.  It turned out to be the world's crappiest time/gravity duo.  It used a mix of pharaohs, scarabs, shards of readiness, dune scorpions, and momentums.  It ended up playing everything on all the wrong targets (putting momentum on everything -except- the dunes, shards on scarabs instead of pharaohs) and I completely destroyed it.  I thought maybe it had gotten a really bad draw, because it had such a good record but did so poorly, and it looked so bad to me.  (I think I was using a 60 card rainbow stall)  I loaded up platinum arena again, and got the same deck twice in a row, only now 33-1, of course.  I then proceeded to demolish it again with exactly the same ease, leaving the deck at 33-2, and leaving me wondering how on earth it was winning any games at all.

(sorry, I know that's the reverse scenario from what you describe, but it kind of fits)

[bripod]

Yeah, Dragons, I faced a similar deck in Gold last night...

It's not so much about "the deck" as "How will the AI play this deck"... Some of the most interesting deck ideas will NEVER be able to be played by the AI...

Understanding how the AI operates is key to building a decent Arena deck... The more you (play) witness the AI doing and commit that to memory, the more consistently you be placing your arena deck up in the top 50.

Knowing the current Meta, will get you further.

[ElementalDearWatson]

And again.  For the first time, rather than trying to make an interesting deck, I decided to make a deck that was boring, but which I thought might do well.  I don't have any practice at doing this, so I wasn't expecting much.  And the deck in question lost its second match, meaning that I thought that whatever arcane formula there is to balancing an Arena deck to do well, I'd missed it. 

Then the deck won its next 45 matches.  It's been number 1 for 2 days so far.  I'm absolutely gobsmacked. 

I think it will be a one-off, and I'll go back to challenging myself to make interesting decks when this one drops off the grid - partly because that's a more fun challenge, and partly because it's now been nearly a week and I've not made a new deck in that time, which is boring.  But, as a novelty, it's been quite cool.

[Afdarenty]

The deck that kept me one win from #1 for most of a day  Gratz, though

[ElementalDearWatson]

Oh yes, I saw your deck.  Actually made me a little nervous, strangely, that you'd knock me off.

It's happened now, though.  I'm 48-2 and in second place.  I imagine it won't be long before I'm off the grid entirely, now.