Beating the AI

[Judge Lazar]

I see a lot of people who don't seem to get the mechanics of how the AI works in this game.

The AI does not have a "hand" it's decks are not shuffled. The AI will play the exact same cards every time. Most times when you play a beastly card, it will have the PERFECT card to counter it. Whether it be a exile, straight kill, or a tap and do not untap enchantment.

Bassicly what I am saying here is that the AI "cheats". For them to program the AI to function with a "random" hand wouldn't work. The wait times for the AI to think about every possible combination of cards in it's hand would be astronomical. So instead they programmed the AI to use their decks in a formulated way, with small spots for it to "adapt" to what you do, but the AI still only has certain options. Which is why it's possible to confuse the AI. When the AI sits and takes a long time to make it's move it is ussually because you have done something unexpected and it now has to go over all it's options to decide how to counter. Ussually when you get the AI in this position you are going to win, because the AI just can't decide on the best solution to what you played.

I found the best way to win is to play the game the way the AI does. Don't just start blasting out all your good cards right away. You have to lure the AI into using it's good spells on crap cards, then throw out the big mamas. Also, save your counters exiles and offensive enchantments, because the AI will do what I just said. It will throw out a little crap creature trying to trick you into countering it, then when you do it will drop something good on you.

Just remember the AI knows what you have in your hand, so try not to be predictable.

[Puzzlemint]

Except that none of that is true. The encounter AI gets a stacked deck, and the AI knows what card is on top of your library, but that's it.

I've seen the Planeswalker AI get mana screwed/flooded dozens of times. It is entirely random.
At least, on Planeswalker difficulty it's entirely random. On Archmage and Mage, there are some cards that the AI will shuffle to the bottom of their deck, cheating in the player's favor.

[Puzzlemint]

Oh, and

Originally posted by Judge Lazar:

I found the best way to win is to play the game the way the AI does. Don't just start blasting out all your good cards right away. You have to lure the AI into using it's good spells on crap cards, then throw out the big mamas. Also, save your counters exiles and offensive enchantments

This is just good advice in general. It has nothing to do with beating the AI in particular.

In fact, it's even more effective against experienced human players, since they're more likely to hesitate and second-guess their plays than the computer is.

[PooBear85]

MTG rules!

[Yondar]

Originally posted by Judge Lazar:

The AI does not have a "hand" it's decks are not shuffled. The AI will play the exact same cards every time.
...
Just remember the AI knows what you have in your hand, so try not to be predictable.

:facepalm:

That embarrassing moment when you attempt to teach others, but instead make everybody know that you are a noob that played only a few hours...

[frownapp]

The 2 times i playe dthe rofaz deck, it played exactly the same way. I dont think that one is random at all.

[Velcrow]

All the more easy to destroy nearly every AI deck once you get the hang of it, and then you can find out which AI is the slowest/worst and grind unlock that so you can get to the real meat of the game, the online multiplayer.

[Judge Lazar]

Originally posted by Yondar:

Originally posted by Judge Lazar:

The AI does not have a "hand" it's decks are not shuffled. The AI will play the exact same cards every time.
...
Just remember the AI knows what you have in your hand, so try not to be predictable.

:facepalm:

That embarrassing moment when you attempt to teach others, but instead make everybody know that you are a noob that played only a few hours...

If you say so. I've played all 3 and this one is definately the way I said. The AI will literally play the exact same cards every time. It was not like that in th eother two

[Puzzlemint]

The encounters will play the exact same cards every time because their decks are stacked. The game tells you this up front.
It was exactly the same in 2013, which introduced encounters.
The entire purpose of encounters is to test your deck's ability to defeat a single, unchanging strategy.

It does not apply to the Planeswalker AI that uses the normal, un-stacked decks.

Also, this is the fourth version of DotP, not the third.

[Yondar]

Originally posted by Judge Lazar:

If you say so. I've played all 3 and this one is definately the way I said. The AI will literally play the exact same cards every time. It was not like that in th eother two

How did you miss playing against the plainswalkers? Whatever, no answer is needed.
Also, no, the AI doesn't know the cards in your hand. For example, if you are sitting with a Giant Growth in your hand, it will fall into your trap every time. If you had really played the game more than a few hours, you would surely know that.

[mpbros74]

Encounters are scripted and will play exactly the same cards at the same time, attack the same way, defend the same way, but with slight variations depending on your strategy. The AI planewalkers (the decks you beat to unlock decks) are purely random. I played through the campaign and beat the planewalker AI 2 or 3 times beacause they were either mana short or flooded. The easiest decks I unlocked.

[=|L$M|= MEMEGATRON]

The threadstarter has played the game for 13 hours & unlocked a fair number of achievements, so at least we can be assured this is no troll.

Many have already explained at great length so I will just point out that much of the single player campaign consists of scripted encounters so that could be why you feel that most of the time the AI is doing the same thing.

Only the duels with the planeswalkers, something like boss fights, play out like normal Magic matches with random starting hands.

Once you start playing Revenge mode, it should get better as they are similar to Planeswalker duels i.e. not fixed or scripted. If I am not wrong, once you complete each Plane or stage, you can also choose to fight planeswalkers, the option is near the bottom of the screen.

[Thaiden]

Originally posted by jaydaman:

Once you start playing Revenge mode, it should get better as they are similar to Planeswalker duels i.e. not fixed or scripted. If I am not wrong, once you complete each Plane or stage, you can also choose to fight planeswalkers, the option is near the bottom of the screen.

:white::blue::green::red::black:

I've been playing through the revenge campaign's over the past week and they 'seem' scripted/fixed if not the same amount as the regular campaign - but I suppose they are not, just a very limited amount of cards
I think you are right about the planeswalker's though, they have more randomized decks vs the encounters. Some of the battles are really tough, but if anything it's to teach you the potential of a deck at it's best and how to properly counter it.

[dh50]

Revenge mode is not more scripted. In fact, there is zero scripting in Revenge mode, since you can't play the encounters in that mode; you can only battle other planeswalkers. The only scripting in the game are the challenges and the encounters. You might see Avacyn's Glory play a turn 1 Champion a few games in a row, but that's only because there are 4 of them in the deck, not because it's scripted. And if you keep playing against it, it will have different turn 1 plays since it gets different draws.

[Yondar]

Even the encounters aren't "scripted", their deck is stacked and that's all. The AI uses the same, well, AI as in planeswalker games. Note, for example, how the first encounter won't play the grave-digging zombie as long as there's nothing in the graveyard -- or at least as long as the benefits of having it in hand outweigh having it on the board.

[135792468]

Originally posted by Judge Lazar:

Originally posted by Yondar:

:facepalm:

That embarrassing moment when you attempt to teach others, but instead make everybody know that you are a noob that played only a few hours...

If you say so. I've played all 3 and this one is definately the way I said. The AI will literally play the exact same cards every time. It was not like that in th eother two

Not the planeswalkers, other than Ramaz. :P