Magic Duels

As someone who got this achievement I can tell you this will take a lot of time.

First of all; don't waste your time battling a friend in a private match or playing Two Headed Giant. Only versus games count.

Second; don't rely on decks made by the Deck Wizard. All of them are trash and the only positive thing about them is that they give you an idea about how to make an actual good deck.

Third; don't waste your time playing a game you're surely about to lose. When you don't get the right starting hand (even after two redraws) or when you're facing a deck you know it's very hard to beat, just use and then to quit the game.
This will have you're opponent play the AI and still reward him for an online win, while you (after about 10 seconds) can start the game up again and try to find another opponent.

Fourth; there's no ultimate deck. Every deck has it's cons and pros. You can have a winstreak of over 10 and all of a sudden you lose every game you enter.

Finally; look at your deck every now and then to make sure all cards are still the best you can get.

With all that in mind, I'll post my deck which got me the 500 wins (and now improved with a couple of cards from the all updates).

Edit 05-14-2016: As the Perilous Myr has been removed from the game I had to make some changes to the deck.
At the moment I don't have everything unlocked yet (am at 67% for Shadows over Innistrad), so there is a chance this deck could be improved.

Blue:
Clutch of Currents x3 (Zendikar - common)
Disperse x2 (common)
Claustrophobia x4 (common)
Whirler Rogue x3 (uncommon)
Thopter Spy Network x2 (rare)

Red:
Vile Aggregate x2 (Zendikar - uncommon)
Thopter Engineer x3 (uncommon)
Ghirapur Gearcrafter x4 (common)
Exquisite Firecraft x2 (rare)
Pia and Kiran Nalaar x2 (rare)

Multicolored (Gold):
Reclusive Artificer x3 (uncommon)

Artefact:
Chief of the Foundry x3 (uncommon)
Gueardians of Melitis x1 (common)
Pilgim's Eye x1 (Zendikar - uncommon)
Stoneforge Masterwork x2 (Oath - rare)

Land:
Island x8
Mountain x8
Sulfur Falls x2 (rare)
Foundry of the Consuls x3 (uncommon)
Looming Spires x1 (Zendikar - common)
Skyline Cascade x1 (Zendikar - common)

This is a low budget deck (only 10 rares), which wins 8 out of 10 matches. And all the cards can be casted with four mana or less.

Keep in mind that cards as Clutch of Currents and Disperse can be played on your own cards (Whirler Rogue, Reclusive Artificer, Pia) or to send that annoying creature with two aura's attached to it back to your opponent's hand.

With the Reclusive Artificer and Exquisite Firecraft you have some direct removal.

Thopter Engineer combined with Chief of the Foundry will overwhelm 95% of your opponents and when you have the Thopter Spy Network on the board it's almost a guaranteed win.

I would put this in the comment section of another solution but I feel this will be better noticed here.

If you are following your gamehub for an exact count to see your progress towards this achievement I believe something is allowing it to count incorrectly. I just unlocked this today, August 20th, 2016, and am only showing 347 wins on my game hub.

If you are trying for this do your best to count the wins yourself as I'm living proof that it can't be trusted.

For a bit more info as to why this may have happened I play the game religiously when it launched but stopped only to come back when eldritch moon was released.

My best guess at the moment is when the leave game or continue box pops up and you accept the win and finish I believe it may be counting that as two wins. This is just hearsay from me but I can't think of another reason why i would unlock this 153 game early.

I am sure it was not only me who was wondering what exactly counted toward this achievement. I contacted Wizards through Twitter to ask whether private matches when inviting a friend count toward these 500 wins.

@Wizards_Help Do private match wins against a friend in Magic Duels on the Xbox One count toward the 500 win "Versus Slugger" achievement?

@[Default] At this time that achievement is looking for online matchmaking games, however we can get feedback on this up for you!

Unfortunately, this also means that two-headed giant matches do not count either, even though they are "matchmaking games." The achievement is only obtained from literally playing under the "Versus" tab and the one that gives you gold.

So it seems that this is not easily boostable. It seems too inconsistent to try matching a friend to trade wins. Thus, you may need to play legit and grind literally days of playtime.

However, to make things go a bit quicker, if you aren't the best deckbuilder (as many of us are not) you can find decks by other players on No Goblins Allowed. They're all sorted by color to make picking easier! Just pick the archetype you have the most cards unlocked for.

http://forum.nogoblinsallowed.com/viewforum.php?f=52&sid...

This took 550 wins before it finally unlocked. I'm posting the 2 decks I used to hopefully accelerate your progress. The win rate of both is high and could assist in hitting rank 40 as well. Personally I found multi-color decks to be too inconsistent, but both of these mono-color decks will leave you vulnerable to Sphinx's Tutelage decks(still winnable just need to be very quick/lucky).

3x Goblin Glory Chaser
3x Flameblade Adept
2x Molten Vortex
4x Fiery Impulse
4x Titan's Strength
2x Abbot of Keral Keep
1x Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
4x Mage-Ring Bully
3x Infectious Bloodlust
3x Dragon Fodder
1x Wrangle
1x Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh
1x Lathnu Hellion
2x Ahn-Crop Crasher
2x Exquisite Firecraft
1x Devour in Flames
1x Act of Treason
1x Hazoret the Fervent
18x Mountain
1x Rogue's Passage

I created this deck to either win or lose quickly as I didn't wanted to play for 15+ minutes only to lose. An ideal draw is 2-3 lands with a Glory Chaser. You'll find that a lot of opponents will quit out on the 2nd or 3rd turn if you renown him while Fiery Impulsing the creatures they put out. If you don't have all the cards (Hazoret might take a while to get) you can substitute almost anything that helps get the game over quickly.

Depending on the cards you have, you might prefer the white one below:

1x Kytheon, Hero of Akros
3x Anointer of Champions
3x Expedition Envoy
4x Enshrouding Mist
2x Thalia's Lieutenant
3x Consul's Lieutenant
4x Topan Freeblade
2x Declaration in Stone
2x Thalia, Heretic Cathar
2x Bygone Bishop
2x Knight of the Pilgrim's Road
1x Heliod's Pilgrim
2x Always Watching
1x Collective Effort
1x Oketra the True
2x Kytheon's Irregulars
1x Angelic Destiny
1x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1x Archangel Avacyn
22x Plains

Very easy to play and getting an Expedition Envoy, Thalia, and a 2 drop in your opening hand is usually an auto-win. If you don't have Oketra or Gideon it's not critical that you have them.

Hi all!

I am a top Magic Player or I would like to consider myself one of them! I play Magic Arena on a daily basis and easily reach Mytic Rank there when I try.

I had previously tried to get the daily quest achievement but started the game a bit too late and reached something like 350 daily. During this time I only played Versus matches so the tracker was at 368 ranked wins but the achievement unlocked at my count at 509 wins. But the achievement seem to be glitchy since some said it unlocked far later. One even said at over 1100 wins.

Each time I was about to win and my opponent left and AI took over I continued to play vs the Ai. But if an opponent left and it would take time to beat the Ai I left and got the win and they seem to count since I did that way more than 9 times.

I made a RED deck in like 10 minutes and improved it two times throughout my remaining wins. My stats for it got a bit worse at the end when I kept drawing land after land and no creatures etc. So that can happen but my stats is ok after all as I got 141 wins and 49 losses. I believe I should have 15 losses less but messed up with mulligans a few times.

I will share my videos of the deck here for some strategy but first I want to explain how you mulligan well. (Mulligan is when you take a new hand at the start of the game and in this game you get one free mulligan and don´t get punished the first time with one less card but after the first free mulligan you only get 6 cards and after that 5 cards). You can with this deck go down to 5 cards and win but it is putting you way behind.

If you get 5 or more mountains on starting hand! Use the free mulligan!

If you go down to 6 cards and only have one mana! I would most of the time keep it since this deck can win with just 2 mana. After I improved the deck it was more important though with 3 mana as I added more 3 mana cost cards and removed some cheaper ones.

I will share my final version of the deck and also mention the cards I added and removed. And also share why I removed them.

I will also explain why each card is in the deck!

Here is the complete decklist:

You can also watch this video with the deck!



21 Mountains! (My first versions of the deck had only 20 and it was enough and sometimes I kept drawing lands anyway. Of course there where times I got too few lands at my starting hand but you don´t want to keep drawing lands with this deck).

Enchantments:

2 Molten Vortex = This card is so good in this deck! The strategy is to keep all the mana on your hand when you already have three in play. Even when you don´t have this card because there is always a chance that you suddenly get one of the two. And keeping mana is also good for another card you use called Collective Defiance. The 4th mana might be needed sometimes to double cast spells and creatures but try to limit yourself playing all of your mana if you don´t need to. And the 4th mana is always needed to make best use of the card Collective Defiance. However again, try to keep your extra mana on your hand and suddenly you can use your lands on your hands for 2 damage on opponent or creatures standing your way. Sometimes you get both on your hand and it sucks.

3 Trial Of Zeal = I added this card when I needed like 10 more wins and crazy thing is that I never drew it once. But I know this one should be in the final version of the deck instead of the cards I removed. This is another extra card that can remove the threats standing in the way of your creatures or be the card that push for direct damage on your opponent. Many times your opponents can have like 12 life left and you have 12 damage of direct damage in your hand. I don´t use the shit card cartouche to make this card better. It is not worth it and if you do this card become less strong. Believe me! The card would loose its purpose.

Creatures:

It is important to get one or two at the start hand! Most of my losses I did not get any and kept drawing other cards but even so I won many of those matches. I would not mulligan if I get 2 or 3 lands without creatures.

3 Bloodrage Brawler = One of the best creatures in the game and highly underestimated! Most opponents use slow decks and lands that comes into play tapped. This one very often gave me 8 damage to the opponent before it was dealt with. And I would most of the times threw away my 3rd land on turn 2 even if that meant I could not use my three mana cost spells. However if you do then you should have at least 2 more cards that can be played with just 2 mana. You can throw away something like twin bolt early on or a schock.

But the best part of this one if you instead play another creature turn two is that if you have Fiery Temper instant card on hand, you can use its madness on turn three for either 3 more damage on opponent or killing your opponents creature that might stand in your way for your creatures. Just for one mana and the discard thing suddenly became a strength.

2 Hanweir Garrison = Also one of the best creatures in the game! This one is truly overpowered. You want to play this on turn three but sometimes you might have bloodrage brawler already on the field and your opponent might have a creature with 3 in power. Then you should most of the times kill your opponents creature instead and wait to play Hanweir Garrison and that way keep the pressure on your opponent. Your opponent might kill this creature on his turn and you miss out on one attack for 4 damage.

This one gives you two 1/1 creatures each time it attacks! Truly powerful!

2 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider = I added this near the end for the final version of the deck. This one is really good as it has menace and will likely always deal it´s 1 damage and then an additional two from its monkey that shows up each time you attack with it. Just be careful not to play both if you have them both since it is legendary you can only have one in the field at a time.

2 Abbot of keral keep = This is also one of the best creatures in the game! If you are stuck at two mana and you play this on turn two. You might get a mana for free to play. And if you play this on turn 3 or later. Be sure to NOT play a land before you play it because then you would not be able to play that mana for free from your deck. This one is also very good when you have 4 or 5 mana on the board. Then you will be able to play one extra card for free such as a card that deals 3 or 4 damage or another creature. So this one is very powerful. But if you don´t have another two cast creature turn two, don´t hesitate to play it and miss out on the free card. That is just a bonus! You will deal a lot of damage with this one since it also gets stronger when you use a non creature spell and for example kill your opponents creatures so it can attack freely.

2 Ember Hauler = Not the best creature at all! But this one is 2 free damage and if it is played on turn two it will most of the times also attack for 2 damage. And good thing is to try to keep one mana available to use when your opponent kills it. You pause the game and sacrifice it for 2 damage. I had 3 in previous versions but two is enough and this guy sure helps the deck.

2 Lathnu hellion = Might be the most underestimated card in the entire game because I never saw anyone use it. I can´t believe it! You want to kill your opponent quick and even in slow matches this deck tends to win. This one deals 8 damage to your opponent most of the time if played on turn three. That is a "bolt/direct damage" with just one card. That is a massive advantage! This one has haste and is a 4/4. That is not easy to take care of turn three and opponents tends to leave it alone because it will die anyway. lol
But if they let you deal 8 damage with this one you should win with all the direct damage you got in the deck. You can also use your only fling instant spell that I added near the end during the turn this one will die after it has attacked and dealt it´s damage. (This card reminds me of the skyshroud ridgeback creature I used 3 of when I once won the swedish nationals and people were laughing at the card. By using that card which is similar to Lathnu hellion but it´s goal was always to deal 4 damage for one mana and it is huge in a deck like this).

4 Thermo - Alchemist = Super strong card for this deck! It can also defend you against creatures with 2 or less power and still use its ability for one damage each turn. I was lazy many times and used its ability on my own turn but you should use it during his end phase. And if you also have an instant you want to use, then you can untap this one and use it twice. Even three times during a turn if you cast two instants/sorcery. So this one is really good and deals a lot of damage over time. The strategy for this card if it is turn 2 is to first play the other creatures. I would play this after I have already played my other attack creatures. Even the 3 cast creatures before this one. So you will miss out on some extra damage this could do when you cast instants to kill your opponents creatures but when you finally play this and try to finish off your opponent with instants and sorceries. Well this one is a dangerous one.

Instants:

4 Shock = Very good card! With just three mana you can use this and twin bolt during the same turn and with two Thermo-Alchemist on the field that will be powerful. And this is also a very good spell to remove threats with for just one mana. And two damage on your opponent is not bad either!

4 Twin Bolt = Very good card! This one is so good! Many times you can kill two creatures with it. Such as a 4/1 or 2/1. And you can deal one to a creature and one to your opponent. This one is so flexible. And for just two mana this one is great. And it also makes your alchemist better.

4 Fiery Temper = My first version of the deck did not use it! I overlooked it! This one is super strong with Bloodrage Crawler. And 3 damage is a lot! This one is a very important card for this deck.

1 Fling = The last card I added in to the deck! This one can be replaced. I am not convinced but I believe it should stay. When you have attacked with a creature and it gets blocked you can use this one and sacrifice it to deal for example 4 damage if it is one of your 4 power creature. One card for 4 damage in direct damage is good. But you don´t want to have two in your hand so that is why I only use one and I can´t fit more in the deck because all the other cards are too important. You can replace this one with another Ember Hauler if you prefer that. The original idea was to use Kari Zev´´s Expertise and steal a powerful creature from your opponent and then attack with it and after he gets it back sacrifice it with Fling. But adding more flings is not a good idea. Also cards that steal your opponents creatures often get stuck on your hand and you don´t want to draw cards like that in the beginning instead of creatures and direct damage. That is why I removed Kari Zev Expertise and also Wrangle that I used in my first version of the deck.

Sorceries:

2 Exquisite Firecraft = So good card! This one can´t be countered! So if your opponent has 4 or less health and is ready with a counterspell, well then he is screwed. This one also deal 4 damage which is a lot for one direct damage card. For just three mana as well! One of the best cards in the deck! (Well, a lot are).

2 Collective Defiance = This card is so good! With 4 mana on the board you tend to deal 4 damage to a creature and 3 on your opponent. I used its other ability to change my own hand to new cards like 4 times and that was also helpful. But that ability requires you to keep drawing lands that you keep on your hand like I suggested and then you have this one. So this card can save you big time when things looks bad. But the goal with this card is to remove a creature and deal 3 damage to your opponent.

Here are some matches I did with this version of the deck and earlier version where I used Goblin Arsonist but in the end it does not fit the deck. The cards I added are better! But the videos show how strong the decks is.



The above video is the match that gave me the achievement for 500 wins.



The above video shows how good Bloodrage Brawler is but I used Goblin Arsonist and Wrangle in that version of the deck and it was not as good as the final version I just shared.



Above shows how quick this deck wins and how easily it makes the other player give up.



Shows a situation were it is better to not throw away fiery temper and keep it and just throw away a land instead.

There you have some videos and this deck should help you out reaching the 500 wins achievement quickly and is also great for the solo 500 achievement.