Magic The Gathering: Battlegrounds - Strategy Guide (Page 04)

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   9.2.3.3 AKROMA
 Deck Contents: See section 5.3
 Arcanis: Remember, this guy simply cannot handle multiple creatures at once.
   So do just that: Give him an army to worry about. Bunch of Hawks with
   Warrior's Honor will delay him. When you get to 5 mana, get ready to cast a
   Warrior Angel at the same time he casts Air Elemental. Cast it slightly
   back from the line though, so you can give her Guided Strike before she
   fights the Elemental. Then just regen mana until you have 5 again, and try
   to time it to get another one on the board. It's the Hawk swarm at the
   beginning that lets this work, by limiting Arcanis's actions.
 Multani: Use Youthful Knights with Guided Strike to kill Elvish Warriors in
   one shot. Get to 5 mana, then cast a Warrior Angel about the middle of your
   part of the arena. Give her Guided Strike everytime she spawns so she kills
   the Giant Spider. Don't even worry about killing Multani, just keep that
   Angel with Guided Strike, and you'll break 50 life. Remember to use Knights
   with Guided Strike to guard your ground front. Cast Test of Endurance when
   you hit 50 life.
 Maraxus: Play a bit more defensively here. When you cast creatures, cast them
   in the back of your area. This is so you can stand in front of them and
   shield when Maraxus casts Engulfing Flames. Very useful. Cast a Warrior's
   Honor right before she passes you going over the middle so she'll absorb
   one shot of Flames without losing any base defense. Use Guided Strike if he
   casts a Volcanic Dragon or Goblin Sky Raider. I was at 46 life when my
   Angel finally killed him. I almost got to use Test of Endurance again!
 Akroma: You're going to have to outcast her, really. When you get to 5 mana,
   both of you should be throwing a Warrior Angel. Try and get yours out
   before hers, so you can give yours Guided Strike and make it kill hers in
   one hit.
   After that, go for nothing but Thunder Spirits. When you have three Spirits
   flying around, use Warrior's Honor every now and then. But get more mana
   than you are spending, so you when you max out, you can cast 3 Youthful
   Knights and two Hawks, then Warriors Honor twice. Just keep casting
   anything followed up with Warrior's Honor, and you'll win.. :)
 Ihsan's Shade: Okay, don't Demystify when he casts Liability. It hurts him
   more than you. When you get 5 mana, cast a Warrior Angel at the back of the
   arena. Give it Guided Strike asap so it kills his Sengir Vampire in one
   stroke. After that, give it Guided Strike or Warrior's Honor (depends if he
   casts a creature or Vicious Hunger). When you get to full mana, cast
   another Angel. Then try and keep them with Warrior's Honor so they don't
   die to Infest, or Vicious Hunger. :)
 Mirrora: The main thing is to hold out until 9 or 10 crystals. It's not that
   hard. Use Youthful Knights with Guided Strike to kill 3/3 Goblin Heroes,
   and a simple Suntail Hawk prevents aerial damage. When you have 9+
   crystals, summon 3 Thunder Spirits on the line and regenerate mana. She'll
   spend all of hers fighting them. You may even get to grab a crystal of hers
   during this because she'll be in a corner fighting the Spirits off. Use
   Warrior's Honor every once in a while when you are sitting back there
   replenishing your mana. Cast more Thunder Spirits on the line until you max
   out creatures and just keep using Warrior's Honor. Be ready with Youthful
   Knights to stop the ground charges she does though. Even though she is
   taking a massive beating in the corner, she still finds time to launch an
   attack against you! Go figure. Anyway, it's her attempts to fight back with
   creatures that kills her, because your Spirits hurt her good when she's
   casting spells.


  9.2.4 BLACK WALKTHROUGH
   9.2.4.1 KEROC
 Deck Contents: See section 5.1
 Tenera: Use Death's-Head Buzzards to begin with. She'll let them keep hitting
   her until she is down to 10 health, then she'll swat them everytime. Just
   bide your with Vicious Hunger and a swat to kill the Elvish Warriors until
   you have 10 crystals and cast 5 Carnophages on the line.
 Keroc: Definitely the wierdest fight I ever had.. summon a Death's-Head
   Buzzard on three mana. Shield his Carnophage so it respawns, don't hit it.
   You both should be taking 1 from the Carnophage. Let it hit your shield,
   then respawn - thas 1 damage apiece. Your bird well help bring him down to
   10 faster. Like Tenera, once he's at 10 life or less, he'll kill the
   Buzzard. But the damage is done. You can do three things: keep shielding
   the Carnophage until he dies, cast a Death's-Head Buzzard and smack it
   yourself so the Carnophage is a 1/1, which you can shield and take NO
   damage from (lol, I was bored..), or summon an army of Carnophages on the
   line to finish him off.
 Kuldan: Like the previous duelists, he will keep taking the damage from a
   Buzzard until he hits 10 life. So cast one and let it poke away at him.
   When you have 8 or more crystals, summon all Carnophages on the line and
   keep summoning more. Win.
 Alberon: This one can be quicker. Use a Death's-Head Buzzard to bring him
   down to 10 life as well, then cast straight Carnophages to finish him off.
   Swat his Youthful Knights so they don't murder your Carnophages!
 Ildavar: Use the Buzzards to get him to 10 health like usual, then get ready
   to swarm him. But first, kill his current Turtle, then cast a Buzzard and
   swat it yourself when he casts another one. This will make his Turtle a
   0/3. THEN cast an army of Carnophages on the line. One will kill the Turtle
   without taking damage and respawn, and the rest will go through to hit him.
   Keep summoning Carnophages to finish him off.
 Akroma: This was kinda fun! I summoned two things the whole fight. Know what
   that was? Two Death's-Head Buzzards! Use Buzzards to bring her down to half
   life. She likes to taunt ALOT, so run over and smack her while she is
   taunting you. I did about 6 damage total over all her taunting. :P
   Anyway, kill her creatures on the center line, and she'll run up for the
   shards. Hit her! Just keep hitting her. When she is down to 3 or so life,
   chase her to her side and finish her off. Raawwwrr!

   9.2.4.2 MIDIA
 Deck Contents: See section 5.2
 NOTE: Midia is one hot chick. ;)

 Tenera: Get two Liabilities into play, then keep killing his Defiant Elves.
   Use Vicious Hunger on Elvish Warriors to weaken them before killing them.
   Very easy round.
 Midia: Fun round here. Get a Liability in play as soon as you can. She casts
   Juzam Djinn, and THEN Liability. So Block the Djinn with a Carnophage, then
   another one if you do NOT have the mana for Vicious Hunger. Swat it then.
   If you have the mana, you should block Juzam's with 1 Carnophage, then hit
   it with Vicious Hunger and swat it. This will give you enough mana to
   repeat it on the next Juzam. Do so until she dies.
 Volita: She won't cast many creatures once you get Liability in play. She'll
   focus on using two Goblin Heroes at a time, and Scorching Missile. Use
   Infest to kill the Goblins so Liability really hurts her. Use Vicious Touch
   twice when you have eight full mana to make up for some of the Scorching
   Missiles. Just keep killing her Goblins, and she'll die to Liability.
 Evalisa: Keep casting Liability right before you kill creatures. She will
   Demystify it every time, but the damage is already done. When she has a lot
   of mana, let her get 3 or 4 Hawks on the board, then cast Liability
   followed by Infest. This is how you will do most of the damage to her. When
   she is low, she'll switch to just Venerable Monks. So get a Liability out,
   and use Vicious Hunger. Then throw a Juzam Djinn to attack her. This will
   eventually kill her.
 Zayel: A tough fight, get two Liabilities in play as soon as possible. Don't
   summon anything, because she'll Unsummon the pain creatures, and just whack
   the Buzzard. Use Infest alot to kill her Turtles and Fighting Drake. You
   may want to send in a Juzam just to force her to throw out more Turtles. If
   so, use Vicious Hunger to get some life back.
 Multani: Get two Liabilities in play, and Multani will quickly kill himself
   by steadily throwing creatures at you. When he gets to three green, he will
   start casting Giant Growth on everything he casts, so be ready to kill it
   fast with a Vicious Hunger when he summons them.

   9.2.4.3 IHSAN'S SHADE
 Deck Contents: See section 5.3
 Multani: Use a Carnophage to block the first Elvish Warrior, then cast a
   Liability and kill it. Cast a Harbinger of Night at 3 mana and let it
   weaken everything. Kill the Elves and take their 1 point of damage. Get a
   2nd Liability into play, and use Infest, Vicious Hunger, and Dark Banishing
   as needed. He WILL cast Giant Growth on a Rushwood, so Dark Banish them if
   he does. The Harbinger will turn the Spiders into 0/2 creatures, so run up
   and hit them and kill them for free. :)
 Arcanis: What I thought would be a very difficult fight... wasn't. Just get a
   Liability in play asap. At three mana, cast a Death's-Head Buzzard. It will
   die on his Wind Drake, but it turns the Horned Turtle into a 0/3. Run up
   and hit it twice to make it respawn as a 1/2. Use Infest when his Air
   Elemental comes at you, then take the damage from its hit, but hit it twice
   so it dies and deals Arcanis damage. Keep saving up mana, and using Infest
   as needed.
   Take the hits from a 2/2 Air Elemental so you can kill it, and use Vicious
   Hunger on a Turtle to get the life back. Cast a Harbinger of Night if he
   gets three Turtles in play, and shield the attack from the Air Elemental,
   then hit it once. It should die the next time on your side. When the
   Turtles are down to 0/1 creatures, run up and whack each one once. Keep
   saving mana, and Arcanis will cast Mana Short. Hit him with Soul Feast
   then. Not as hard of a fight as I expected.
 Ihsan's Shade: This was a trippy fight! Cast Liability on the 4th mana, then
   save mana for Vicious Hungers and Infests. He's going to cast Sengir
   Vampires next, so use Vicious Hunger or Infest to bring them down to 2
   toughness. Either way, you're going to take two damage. If you use Infest,
   you gain nothing and take 2 when you hit it twice to kill it. If you use
   Vicious Hunger, you gain 2, but take 4 when you hit it twice to kill it.
   So, anyway.. hold out doing this to his Vampires (he will cast three in a
   row) and try to get a 2nd Liability of your own in play (totalling 3 in
   play). When he casts Soul Feast, you cast Soul Feast. Eventually he'll go
   to two Juzam Djinns. This is perfect. Wait for the second one, then Infest
   twice, making them both 1/1 creatures. Swat both to deal 6 damage to your
   opponent. :)  Keep killing his creatures without summoning one of your own,
   and if he is at 4 life, use Soul Feast to polish him off.
 Akroma: Again, you'll have to get used to casting Liability right before
   killing creatures because she is going to Demystify it quickly. When you
   kill off two of her Warrior Angel's, she'll resort to a Thunder Spirit and
   a bunch of Hawks. Throw up Liability when blows all her mana, and Infest.
   Then swat the 1/1 Spirit and you'll have dealt a nice four damage. She'll
   Demystify when she gets four mana, giving you a mana Advantage on her. Get
   to full mana, and cast Liability. Get back to max, and cast it again.
   You'll notice that you are reaching full mana faster than she is reaching
   four each time, so you are gaining an even bigger mana advantage. Cast a
   Sengir Vampire followed by a Liability. Run over and swat her first few
   Hawks that she tries to pump up with Guided Strikes and such. After that,
   let Sengir go to work on her. Use Soul Feast as you get the mana available.
   Keep trying to swat her Hawks too, so Sengir hits HER.
 Maraxus: A difficult fight. Get two Liabilities in play as soon as possible.
   Use the mana shards from the first Volcanic Dragon to do it. After you cast
   the first Liability, get max mana again. Cast Dark Banishing on the Dragon
   when it it summoned and grab those shards to quickly cast Liability. Also
   watch out, because at four mana, Maraxus will cast Scorching Missile. Now,
   keep killing his Dragons so he is taking damage. When you get to 8 mana,
   use two Vicious Hungers on a Dragon instead. When you get to 10 mana, he is
   going to cast TWO Dragons in a row. Go to the bottom corner of the arena
   and start an Infest so it will hit BOTH Dragons. Infest again quickly so
   both die (you may still take the 2 damage hit from the first Dragon - it's
   okay).
   Watch out though: Maraxus casts Engulfing Flames every time a Dragon dies
   if you have no creatures out (which you shouldn't).
 Mirrora: Once again, another White deck with Demystify. Computer opponents
   use this spell WAY too often. Anyway, hold out until you hit 8 mana. Just
   keep casting Infest to kill things, or make them 1/1 so you can swat them.
   Shield her Engulfing Flames or Scorching Missiles. When you get to 8 mana,
   let her cast everything she can, then cast Liability and Infest. She'll
   Demystify when she gets the 3 white mana back, giving you more time to get
   full mana back. Use a Carnophage to block any Goblin Heroes. Watch out for
   her using Guiding Strike on the Heroes after you cast Carnophages, so try
   and cast them right before it's too late. She is going to throw a LOT of
   Scorching Missiles at you. She regenerates mana insanely fast compared to
   you. When you are both at 12 crystals, hit her with a Soul Feast right
   after she casts Scorching Missile so you take 2, gain 4, she takes 4,
   gains.. NOTHING! :D
   Anyway, I had a somewhat difficult fight.. We were both down to 9 at the
   same time, so it wasn't easy to beat her until I started using Soul Feast.

  9.2.5 BLUE WALKTHROUGH
   9.2.5.1 ILDAVAR
 Deck Contents: See section 5.1
 Keroc: Easy. Unsummon his Carnophage repeatedly to kill him.
 Kuldan: Get a Turtle out to block, then just swarm him with Wind Drakes.
 Alberon: Same strategy.
 Tenera: Again, same strategy.
 Ildavar: Once more.. Turtles to block, then swarm with Wind Drakes.
 Akroma: Same strategy will beat her as well.

   9.2.5.2 ZAYEL
 Deck Contents: See section 5.2
 Volita: Use Turtles to block Goblin Heroes, but get two Pendrell Mists into
   play as soon as you can to lock the game down. Unsummon anything she casts
   to drain her mana and eventually kill the creature. Then just use Fighting
   Drakes to attack her repeatedly.
 Entorin: Gonna lock him down with 2 Pendrell Mists as well. A funny thing:   
Get two Pendrell Mists in play, then simply stand on the line and shield
   his Defiant Elf as it attacks you to force it to use up all his mana and
   die. Feel free to speed up the process with Unsummons. :)
 Zayel: Make an army of Fighting Drakes. I had 5 of them on the board by the
   time she died.
 Midia: Basically going to do the same as you did against Black in Tier 1.
   Just keep Unsummoning the self-pain creature she casts (Juzam Djinn).
   She'll also cast Liability and a few Death's-Head Buzzards. Swat the
   Buzzards to do some extra free damage. :)
 Evalisa: Gonna have to keep swatting everything she summons, and Unsummoning
   anything affected by Warrior's Honor. Then swarm with Fighting Drakes.
 Multani: Just keep killing everything and cast a Fighting Drake. He'll
   eventually get around to casting a Goblin Sky Raider. Keep Unsummoning it
   because he's going to give it Reckless Charge and Giant Growth over and
   over again. Ride the Drakes to victory.

   9.2.5.3 ARCANIS
 Deck Contents: See section 5.3
 Maraxus: A very annoying fight. Survive long enough to get 7 or 8 mana. Then
   cast Air Elemental and give it Mage's Guile, then Counterspell the Sky
   Raider he casts. Stay at the FAR BACK of the arena though. You need to be
   able to counter the Scorching Missiles, and the bigger the distance between
   you and him, the more time you have to counter it (see section 6, Counter-
   spell). Keep summoning Air Elementals to win.
 Ihsan's Shade: Counterspell his Liabilities just to annoy him. He'll keep
   trying to cast Liability, Sengir Vampire, Liability, Sengir Vampire... etc.
   Keep them countered until you get an Air Elemental on the board, then just
   Counterspell the Infests to win. You'll have to cast a new Elemental every
   now and then. :)
 Multani: Here you are going to have to Counterspell Overruns and Giant
   Spiders. Other than that, use Horned Turtles to block. Save up for Air
   Elementals. In the meantime, get two Pendrell Mists into play and Unsummon
   everything he has to kill it all.
 Arcanis: This is going to come down to a match of "King of Counters". Start
   by summoning a Horned Turtle over the line so it fights his first Turtle,
   then match his second one with one of your own. Get these Turtles fighting
   each other! Grab the shards from the Turtles dieing to cast a Fighting
   Drake asap on the 4th crystal, then grab the shards from the others dieing
   to Counterspell anything your enemy tries to cast. Save up mana then. He'll
   try to cast either a Wind Drake or Fighting Drake, so Counterspell them!
   When your Drake dies, just keep Counterspelling and save up some mana. When
   you have 7+ mana, Counterspell followed by an Air Elemental. Get mana again
   quickly so you can Counterspell the Drakes he's going to want to block
   with. Just keep doing that until you win (you will probably need one more
   Elemental to finish him off).
 Akroma: This fight is difficult. You're going to have to pummel the crap out
   of a bunch of Hawks to get through to her. Remember that every time she
   gets down to 2 mana when casting creatures, she's going to cast Warrior's
   Honor. Start a Counterspell right before she starts Warrior's Honor, and
   you can stop it, then whack all her 1/1 Hawks easily. Counterspell the
   Warrior Angel as well. Save up mana, then cast a series of Fighting Drakes
   after countering one of her five-hawk Warrior Honor rushes (so she's
   drained of mana). Just keep trying to overwhelm her.
 Mirrora: Gonna have to unsummon a lot of stuff here. Go ahead and get two
   Pendrell Mists into play. You won't even be throwing an aggressive creature
   until you have 10+ mana. Keep Counterspelling her Demystify's. She will try
   a few times, then give up and start casting creatures. But watch out for
   when she replenishes three white mana, she may try to sneak a Demystify in
   on you. Just Unsummon her creatures at the lost moment to waste her mana.
   Try to keep ONE alive, don't kill it with an Unsummon yet. Unsummon it
   instead right when she crosses having two full mana. This will eat both of
   those, and you can do this until you have a full 12 crystals. If you mess
   up even the slightest, she will roast you with Scorching Missiles and
   steady Demystifys. This is definitely the toughest fight in the entire
   Arcade. Anyway, once you reach 12 mana, summon four Horned Turtles on the
   line. Then let her ground creatures die to them/kill them. You're only
   going to really hurt her by making her come up for the mana shards and eat
   a Turtle bite or two. Just keep doing that. Counterspell the Warrior's
   Honor as you see them coming. If she is doing the Goblin Hero, Warrior's
   Honor, Guided Strike, Reckless Charge over and over again after you
   Unsummon them (by now, she has destroyed both enchantments - that's okay,
   not needed anymore), cast a flying creature with 4 defense (Air Elemental
   or Fighting Drake, either one is fine). This will stop her long enough to
   let your Turtles actually hurt the damn Goblins. Anyway.. have fun poking
   her to death with the Turtles.
   Let them kill her creatures, and die. That is how you will win.

  9.2.6 CUSTOM DECK WALKTHROUGH
Sorry, there is no Custom Walkthrough. Use this instead to practice decks, make
and test your own. You need to think and try stuff! Otherwise.. just use decks
that are listed (or will be listed) in the Decks section. Good luck with it!

10. CREDITS
I'd like to give credit to.. myself, for starters. Thanks to people at the
GameFAQs forums, and the official forums hosted by Atari. Major credit goes
to Atari and Secret Level. Naturally Microsoft gets it's fair share,
otherwise there would no console to play this game on, or it'd be just another
PC game! :)

A lot of information was taken from the manual (for
those who don't get a manual, such as in a rental) before I
expounded on it with my own information.


11. LEGALITIES
All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by
their respective trademark and copyright holders. No part of this material
may be copied without obtaining the author's consent. The author is in
no way affiliated with Secret Level, Wizards of the Coast, nor Atari.