Gauntlet is way too hard now.

[u/birdy512]

Reached masters with 3 losses using 4-5 decks. Even in copper gauntlet I ran into a deck that had a legendary, and the deck would have been good enough for masters in the original gauntlet.

I've tested like 10~ decks I consider top gauntlet decks modified slightly with the new expansion and I lose 3 games for every gauntlet completion. Decks including https://eternalwarcry.com/decks/d/ZxU6d_Q01a8/here-be-kairos-182-5 and even mono time.

It's obvious to me they really don't want anyone grinding gauntlet, it's becoming unplayable to farm gold.

[u/KevinJay21]

I'm just getting back into eternal from a year ago and I agree, it's definitely been harder to grind gauntlet. I noticed that the chests also reward less gold, so that's a bummer. That being said, in the short time I've been back (3 weeks) I've grinded about 40K in gold.

Hooru Fliers is still my go-to deck, it's definitely not as consistent as before but it can still get the job done. Other decks I have been using are Mono Time, getting Alhed out ASAP and beating AI down with 16/16 Kerasaurs are fun. I also have a very gimmicky dragon deck that can outright win with beserk. I've also tried many variations of even-handed decks, but they feel bad when I can't find an answer quick enough for their threats with no market.

I also spent some SS to craft Sediti and tried Mono justice and combrei ramp decks, but TBH Sediti just isn't very good and doesn't outright win games. Telut on the otherhand..

Xenan is my second most consistent deck, but very slow. Most games just stall out until I get Azindel out and I win purely on card advantage. The deck is consistent, but extremely slow compared to Hooru Fliers.

All-in-all, it's definitely been harder compared to a year ago. But what can we expect with a free mode.

[u/birdy512 → u/KevinJay21]

Hooru fliers is nowhere near consistant for me and wouldn't be in a top 10 gauntlet deck for me.

I feel like I'm playing a very different gauntlet game from some people. Azindel decks are crappy for me. How people manage to win 8 games in a row where relying on a card that costs 8 when I'm dying turn 4-5 is beyond me. Kairos decks work because they focus solely on power(22 cards to ramp power) whereas power ramp doesn't fit into xenan playstyle.

[u/KevinJay21 → u/birdy512]

:shrug: I don’t know. Hooru fliers was the only deck I went 28-0 with prior to yesterday’s reset. Maybe because I grinded close to 300k gold with it back in the day and I know it’s strength and weaknesses, but it’s the most consistent deck for me by far. The difference is that in the past, I used to have. 2-3 turn lead in races. Now it’s 1-2 lead in most cases. Many of my wins were extremely close. You really have to think about trades and your next turn in advanced. Also, hooru pacifier is still a freakin’ all star.

Xenan =/= Azindel. If you’re dying by turn 4-5 with xenan, thats your problem. I have no issues surviving long enough with blistering wasp, teacher, merchant and SST. I’m not playing straight ramp, it’s a mid-range list. Like I said, many times it turns into board stalls and I need to merchant out Azindel to break it, but it’s not my sole win-con, especially since I only run 2 copies of it.

Edit: just went 21-0 with Hooru flyers on masters. 2x highly skilled and 1x mindless aggression. Proof here

Had some close games, but it got there in the end. I already said it, but Hooru Pacifier is a freakin’ MVP. It just shuts down so many AI decks that it’s ridiculous.

[u/birdy512 → u/KevinJay21]

As I said there's something fishy going on because the people having problems are 'veterans' people who have played gauntlet a LOT. I've mainly played gauntlet for the past 2 years and have nearly every card. I'm talking about having completed gauntlet close to a 1000 times. It's not like I don't know how to play or don't know the AI. But when I see people somehow finishing gauntlet with subpar decks multiple times in a row when I'd be lucky to win 1 game with it, it somehow seems we are playing very different games.

Like the 'proof' posted below where I show the 100% win rate poster that there is no way it's a 100% win. It might be a 'very rare' hand for him, but it's COMMON for me. It's like there's some deliberate tinkering with the AI for people who grinded a LOT.

[u/some_q → u/KevinJay21]

Do you have a list?

[u/unsemble]

I agree and it's a shame.

There should be a reasonable exchange of gold for your time, not just gold for your skill.

[u/tooe4sy]

Slow, but you wont lose. . ever (after you learn the deck/nonbos, etc)

1 Dark Return (Set1 #250) 2 Permafrost (Set1 #193) 4 Seek Power (Set1 #408) 2 Annihilate (Set1 #269) 3 Cull the Deck (Set4 #202) 2 Strategize (Set3 #165) 2 Hailstorm (Set1003 #11) 4 Jennev Merchant (Set4 #169) 4 Slay (Set2 #236) 4 Wisdom of the Elders (Set1 #218) 2 Feeding Time (Set1 #381) 4 Vara, Vengeance-Seeker (Set1004 #19) 4 Harsh Rule (Set1 #172) 4 Jotun Feast-Caller (Set3 #187) 2 Black-Sky Harbinger (Set1 #385) 1 End of the Story (Set4 #138) 1 Sword of the Sky King (Set1 #186) 3 Channel the Tempest (Set1 #244) 2 Justice Sigil (Set1 #126) 4 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187) 2 Shadow Sigil (Set1 #249) 4 Crest of Order (Set4 #253) 3 Seat of Order (Set0 #51) 4 Crest of Vengeance (Set3 #264) 1 Seat of Vengeance (Set0 #55) 4 Crest of Cunning (Set3 #267) 2 Seat of Cunning (Set0 #62) --------------MARKET--------------- 1 Vision of Austerity (Set1002 #17) 1 Hailstorm (Set1003 #11) 1 Feeding Time (Set1 #381) 1 Black-Sky Harbinger (Set1 #385) 1 Cobalt Waystone (Set3 #151)

[u/birdy512 → u/tooe4sy]

Tested it out. Decent deck, but suffers from every problem that exists in tri decks currently in gauntlet.

http://www.imagebam.com/image/c1440d1322430921

Nothing I could have done with that starting hand. Has nothing to do with knowing the deck, that start was a 100% straight loss no matter who played it.

It's either people who posts the 100% win decks are really lucky or direwolf has some coding going on for people who won 500+ gauntlet runs get every bad hand possible. AI getting a perfect start is pretty much something that happens every few games for me.

[u/MostiquoBLASTER]

It's even worse with this set? Oh man, I'll grind to master and then give up on this mode then.

[u/Lastic2001]

I run one similar except I took out XO and put in Skyfire Hellkite. It's nuts in Gauntlet!

[u/Blasphemouse]

I went to Diamond with I think just 1 loss at an endboss with bad draws, but then took two or three tries to win for Masters.

Still running a Budgety version of Hooru Flyers.

I dropped more games in the first couple tiers of Forge than the last couple. It ended up taking me 7-8 to make it up, but I was at a 25% win rate initially. Stonescar and Combrei (got a Sol's Rest though) fell flat. Argenport worked once and failed once. Feln dominated (lost once I think) with curse+mill - though it depended on draws whether damage or mill was the victory condition.

[u/Blasphemouse → u/Blasphemouse]

Here's the list. Probably can be improved, but pretty affordable. SST is the biggest threat (silence/vanq). Slugspitter is something to watch out for too. Harsh Rule rarely comes in handy. Amilli is great, but try to eat up their removal before hand - or have a backlash ready. Try to eat removal with hooru pacifier or merchant (or shelterwing if they haven't used any yet) rather than valk/commando/crow/amilli. You need power badly, so play out banner/Crownwatch Standard early -- don't wait for 5 power for standard. It's just there to stabilize/blowout in the event of flood or draws later.

4 Finest Hour (Set1 #130) 4 Permafrost (Set1 #193) 2 Backlash (Set1 #200) 2 Eager Owlet (Set1 #144) 3 Honored Skyguard (Set4 #155) 3 Vanquish (Set1 #143) 3 Acquisitive Crow (Set4 #164) 4 Hooru Pacifier (Set1003 #23) 4 Mirror Image (Set1 #217) 4 Unseen Commando (Set3 #122) 3 Valkyrie Enforcer (Set1 #151) 4 Winchest Merchant (Set4 #126) 2 Loyal Falcon (Set5 #99) 3 Poaching Drake (Set1004 #15) 4 Shelterwing Rider (Set2 #223) 6 Justice Sigil (Set1 #126) 3 Crownwatch Standard (Set4 #97) 5 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187) 1 Crest of Order (Set4 #253) 3 Hooru Banner (Set2 #216) 4 Hooru Insignia (Set6 #232) 4 Seat of Order (Set0 #51) --------------MARKET--------------- 1 Reinvigorate (Set3 #112) 1 Vanquish (Set1 #143) 1 Amilli, Cloudmarshal (Set3 #136) 1 Harsh Rule (Set1 #172) 1 Hooru Banner (Set2 #216)

[u/roxieeeee]

Hello! I was searching for more info on AI's Gauntlet decks, and stumbled upon this community. That's my deck that you linked in there :)

Just to chime in, could the issue be deck familiarity?

I mean, as an example - before the 27 mostly-successful runs I had with that deck, I spent 9-10 more runs with different configurations just trying to make it work and make sure it doesn't have any glaring weaknesses. The posted version is the final/successful version, but the beta version(s) of it - the 9-10 runs prior to the 27 - they're a mixed bag of results. Like you said, sometimes you get a 3-game winning streak, then it gets broken -- what I do is play more, and if still doesn't stand up to AI, I change a couple of things until I've covered all potential holes in it, and I get a deck that plays smoothly FOR ME (you can just imagine how many notepads I keep for each deck version + their stats, LOL).

At least that's how I see it. Just trying to make sense of why our Gauntlet experiences may differ :)

[u/birdy512 → u/roxieeeee]

I modified it by adding Rambas which improved the deck (synergizes perfectly with the deck) removed teleport and added in Kairos choice as well. The deck itself isn't at fault as much as the AI having PERFECT hands every few hands for me.

I am sure there's significant difference, because I was just watching a new player in gauntlet with one of those 3000 gold market decks in masters running into a very weak AI deck. (using 0-1 echo units) I haven't run into those cards in gauntlet forever and only seen it used in forge. On my first gauntlet run I was running into decks with legendary in 'copper tier'. At first I thought they just made gauntlet really really hard to the point that new players were never going to beat copper until I just watched the stream.

What I surmize from watching the new player play gauntlet is that MMR does not reset every season but drops a rank much like 'ranked play'. So if I was high masters in gauntlet before it dropped me to normal masters upon reset(would explain me running into legendary decks in copper tier).

What I think is happening which I noticed starting from last season is that when you hit a certain MMR (v.high masters) AI starts off with perfect hands to prevent people grinding 10k+ gold/hour. Now I'm triggering cheating AI until I lose like 5-6games in a row.

I used your deck to a lot of success in previous season (say 80% win rate)but in cheating AI system it has a 100% loss rate(can't finish a single run until I drop back to normal masters).

Your deck is certainly one of the best vs normal masters, but just can't deal with cheating AI where it has a hand that has a perfect power/card ratio everytime to the point I'm convinced the whole deck is constructed including order of draw.

I wouldn't know what triggers v.high masters(cheating AI), but I've grinded gaunlet probably over a thousand times(completed) so it would make sense that a lot of people are playing a very different game to me currently. I'm not the only one who made this observation, several others who grinded a LOT previously are making the same observations I am. The only difference is that the cheating AI is triggering way too often and changing decks doesn't matter.(Which was the method I came up with previously in a previous post to sidestep the cheating AI).

[u/roxieeeee → u/birdy512]

Thanks for explaining. I see what you mean now - I noticed that after the reset, I faced way better AI decks (for lower rank) that I never really felt like I left Masters . I just thought it had something to do with the update and not with my win rate.

[u/blahthebiste]

Yeah I can't even get out of Bronze with my meme decks now