Magic 2015 - Duels of the Planeswalkers Achievement Guide & Road Map

Magic 2015 - Duels of the Planeswalkers
Magic 2015 - Duels of the Planeswalkers Achievement Guide

Overview:
- Estimated achievement difficulty: 6/10 [due to the amount of time to get 100 multiplayer wins]
- Offline: 28 [345]
- Online: 2 [55]
- Approximate amount of time to 400: 10-15 hours
- Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 1 [can replay event nodes for cards/other achievements]
- Missable achievements: None
- Does difficulty affect achievements: No
- Unobtainable/glitched achievements: None
- Extra equipment needed: No

DLC: Garruk's Revenge

Difficulty: 1/10
Time to 100: 2-3 hours
Unobtainable: None

Introduction:
Welcome fellow Planeswalkers to Magic the Gathering 2015: Duels of the Planeswalkers! This is the fifth game in this franchise and with this newest edition comes some very drastic changes, the biggest of which is multiplayer. Instead of two headed giant and a "fun" mode like archenemy, the only mode available is Free-For-All. There is also a lack of Revenge campaign which limits replayabilty. Overall this is probably the weaker game of the franchise content wise.

As for writing this roadmap and guide, I will be writing it with how I personally unlocked the achievements. Magic is a game with multiple ways of approaching a goal and if I were to include each different approach then both this roadmap and guide would be three times the length it is now and would (in my opinion) sap all of the fun out of playing.

Campaign:
To avoid playing the tutorial if you are a seasoned veteran of the DOTP series, set the difficulty to Archmage which will allow you to bypass the lessons and go right to the final dueling portion of the tutorial.

I want to make a small note. It will be to your benefit to not worry about the rest of the list your first playthrough. The cards needed are spread throughout each plane.

You should unlock "Apt Pupil," "Angels Champion," "Necropolis Now," "Mental Magic," "Tomb Raider," "Hedron Collector" and "Savior of Shandalar." Depending on your deck choice you could also unlock "Insult to injury," "Death from above" and "Second Life." Depending on what difficulty setting you play on and your luck in drawing cards, the campaign should take you 2-4 hours to complete.

Miscellaneous Achievements:
This is where the majority of the achievements lie. At this point you should have at least one card for each of the achievements. If not, play the exploration nodes on each plane 2-3 times to get them. You could make a garbage deck and have the practice duel use it so you can go unhindered in obtaining the other achievements. You could also set the game to apprentice difficulty and use the first duel to obtain the achievements. The first duel uses the same zombie (albeit multiple copies of him) and will not attack (most of the time) if you have a few creatures on the board making it easy. Every other achievement besides "Deft Duelest" and "Battle Mastery" will be unlocked in this step. Again, depending on your luck in drawing cards, this part should be 2-4 hours.

Multiplayer:
This is where you will spend the bulk of your time. Sadly, the developers have since changed multiplayer to where you cannot fight the same opponent over and over again, as after each match you are forced to search for another opponent. This makes the multiplayer slightly harder to complete but not impossible. At this point I cannot provide any more guidance. Each deck choice is supported and each is capable of taking you to 100 wins. Decide what you want to play and build a deck around that. There are numerous sources online regarding basic deck construction and it would be in your best interest to read some of them to help make a good deck. I really cant say how long this part will take; you could be lucky and get 100 wins in a few hours or it might take you a week of playing a few hours each day. Be patient and don't be afraid to change your deck every so often.

Mop-Up:
At this point the only achievement you may not have is "It must be mine." Grind out exploration nodes until you obtain it.

DLC: Garruk's Revenge

Introduction to Garruk Revenge:
Welcome to the DLC guide for DOTP 2015, this rather short piece has you step into the shoes of Planeswalker Garruk. This has a rather short campaign to it but it also adds new cards.

Abbreviated Walkthrough for DLC:
Only one achievement is really liked to the actual campaign and that is the rest are done outside of it. The first thing is to add a card that was added in the expansion to one of your decks to unlock "Welcome to the club." After that continue on and play the campaign unlocking cards as you go. After defeating the final boss (which will unlock "Deconstructor") play the exploration node until you unlock "Conflux Capicitor," At this point you should have a sharding Sphinx which is required for the only really "difficult" achievement, "Fly my Pretties." A few people have stated that "Murderious Tendencies" can be unlocked outside of the DLC campaign to be on the safe side i would recommend getting it in one of the campaign fights.

Mop-Up to DLC:
At this point you should have the DLC completed, if not continue grinding cards until you do.

[XBA would like to thank SicklyPlague for this Roadmap]

Apt Pupil

5
Finished the tutorial
Unfortunately, regardless of your familiarity with either the other duels games, or with the card game, you must complete the tutorial. It's broken up into 5 parts, each showcasing a different aspect of the game, with the 5th and final part being a duel you can put what you learned to the test.

*If you set the difficulty to plainswalker, you can skip to the end of the tutorial. Handy for those who are already veterans of the Duels series and want to get into the game ASAP.
Spellbook Crafter

5
Built a New Deck
Deck crafting is only unlocked after you finish the Innistrad plane. You can simply edit your current deck, save your changes and this will unlock.
Deft Duelist

5
Won a Multiplayer Duel
Simply win a multiplayer duel. This game only has FFA with up to 4 players and according to some, this will still unlock if your opponent leaves and you defeat the AI that takes over. To be on the safe side make sure your opponent does not leave for the entire match.
Battle Mastery

50
Won 100 Multiplayer Duels
(32)
See Deft Duelist
Angel's Champion

5
Defeated Avacyn
Story related.

Avacyn is the final duel on Innistrad.
Necropolis Now

5
Defeated Tymaret
Story related.

Tymaret is the final duel on Theros.
Mental Magic

5
Defeated Jace
(1)
Story related.

Jace is the final duel on Ravnica.
Tomb Raider

5
Defeated the Onakke Shaman
(1)
Story related

The Onakke Shaman is the final duel on Shandalar
Hedron Collector

5
Defeated Ob Nixilis
(2)
Story related.

Ob Nixills is the second to last duel in the game.
Savior of Shandalar

20
Defeated Garruk
(4)
Story related.

Garruk is the final boss in the game. Unlike the prior duels, he has two phases. The first phase is a green deck and his second phase is green and black deck. Defeat both.
Veteran Explorer

30
Defeated all Explore Nodes
(4)
Each plane has a explorer node that is a series of 3-4 different duels that will eventually end up with you facing a plainswalker. Simply complete all of these for each plane to unlock.
Inherit the Earth

20
Drew three cards with Mentor of the Meek in a single turn
(4)
A White deck will be enough to get this achievement. You need to play 3 creatures with power 2 or less during your turn, while you have Mentor of the Meek in play, ideally with 3, one costing creatures.
Divine Choice

10
Controlled a 20/20 Seraph of the Masses
(2)
A red white deck is a good choice for this achievement. You have a few token generating cards in white like "raise the alarm" which can help boost your creature count. Just make sure you are able to keep your creatures from dying, as well as keeping your life total at a decent enough number. Once you hit 20 creatures on the field play the Seraph, assuming it's not already on the field. (The seraph counts as a creature towards this as well).
Defensive Line

10
Dealt 20 damage with Vent Sentinel in a single duel
(3)
A red and blue deck will do nicely for this, both colors have a good amount of defender creatures, and plenty of removal, counter spells and bounce spells (spells that return things on the board to your opponents hand). To help keep your opponent off balance as you slowly build up your defender army to whittle him down. You have to win the duel using just Vent Sentinels ability.
Pincer Movement

15
Put twenty cards into graveyards with Hedron Crab in a single duel
(4)
I used a green blue deck for this achievement. Hedron crab's ability causes your opponent to put the top 3 cards of his library into his graveyard. As green has many cards that allow you play additional land cards per turn, you can trigger his ability multiple times per turn. After 20 cards are put into the graveyard this way you will unlock this achievement.
Angelbane

15
Destroyed an opponent's Angel using Shadowborn Demon
(4)
Fight against Avecyne and wait until you have Shadowborn demon in your hand (you unlock him playing through Innistrad.) Play him, kill an angel (she has a few angels she plays early in the game) and voila, achievement unlocked.
Out of the Gutter

10
Dealt 10 noncombat damage to opponents with a single Guttersnipe in a single duel
(2)
The quickest way is to build a red deck with a lot of cheap spells, as guttersnipe's ability deals 2 damage per spell played, it should take 5 spells before this unlocks.
Why Did It Have to be Snakes?

10
Paid only two green mana to activate the monstrosity ability of Nemesis of Mortals

Easy enough to achieve, make sure you have 7 creatures in your graveyard by the time Nemesis of mortals enters the battlefield. Green has a lot of cheap creatures that can easily take out your opponents creatures while dying themselves.
It Must be Mine

30
Collected all cards from the main campaign
(4)
You will unlock close to half the cards just by playing through the campaign. The rest you have to unlock by grinding out the exploration nodes. Unlike previous versions, you cannot unlock cards by replying campaign fights. It should only take 5-6 duels on each plane to get the rest of the cards you need. A good rule of thumb is if you unlock only 3-4 cards after you win you can move on to the next plane.

This is obtainable without purchasing premium cards.
Devout Disciple

10
Had a devotion to green of 10 or more when Nylea's Disciple entered the battlefield

Devotion is a mechanic that counts the number of green mana symbols on the field. For this one make sure you have creatures on the field that have in total 10 green mana symbols between all of them before you play Nylea's disciple.
Death from Above

15
Dealt 20 damage to a single opponent in a single duel using creatures with flying

While it's possible to unlock this early as you do have some cheap flyers at the beginning, it's best to wait until you finish Innistrad. A black and white deck will be best as they have powerful flyers that can end the game quickly. Play defensively (not attacking at all and just blocking) until you can drop either a Baneslayer angel or a Shadowborn demon, and then just keep attacking with whatever one you choose until your opponent is defeated.
Second Life

15
Gained 20 life in a single duel

A black and white deck will do nicely for this one, mainly because it has plenty of creatures with lifelink or spells that gain you life outright.
Hat Trick

15
Controlled a creature with three Auras attached to it

There is no real strategy to this one, just make sure you have 5 or 6 enchantments in your deck and keep playing until you are able to attach 3 to a single creature. With how the AI plays on mage difficulty ,any deck you choose should do the trick.
Five-Creature Discount

15
Cast a spell without paying any mana for it
(2)
An easy way is to use a green and white deck to generate a lot of tokens and small creatures Once you have 7 creatures on the field, with at least 2 of them being green, cast siege wurm using its convoke ability and the achievement will unlock.
Ingenuity

15
Won a duel without an opponent losing life
(6)
You need to do what magic players call "deck" your opponent by emptying out his or her library. Spells like tombscour, and creatures like hedron crab and archaeomancer are going to be your tools. A blue and black deck will do fine, it has removal, counter and bounce spells to help get rid of your opponents powerful creatures while you slowly deck them.
Spellstorm

10
Cast five spells in a single turn
(1)
This is easier than it sounds. Using a red and blue deck, make sure you have 5 cheap spells in your hand that you can cast in a single turn. Cards like shock and tomb scour are ideal as they only cost 1 mana to cast.
Not Again

15
Cast the same spell five times in a single duel
(3)
This one is not as tricky as it seems. A blue deck with tomb scour, Archaeomancer and either Void snare or Voyages End will do nicely. Play tomb scour, then when you draw an Archaeomancer, play him and return tomb scour to your hand and play it. Then cast one of the two cards mentioned to return archaeomancer to your hand, recast him again targeting tomb scour. Rinse and repeat.
Insult to Injury

10
Sacrificed a creature you didn't own
(3)
This is one of the easier and simpler miscellaneous achievements to obtain. Once you have blood flow connoisseur on the field, cast act of treason and then sacrifice the creature you took to the connoisseur. Depending on your deck choice this can be the first achievement you unlock as the R/B deck already has these cards.
Grateful Dead

10
Won a duel with twenty or more creature cards in your graveyard

This achievement is rather self explanatory, make sure at least 20 of your creatures die before you win. A red and white deck is a good choice, as each color has cheap creatures you can throw at your opponents and enough powerful burn spells and flyers to be able to win.
Rampant Growth

10
Had seven lands on the battlefield before the end of your fourth turn
(4)
This one is all about luck and you need to get 7 land on the battlefield before turn 4 is over. A green deck comprised of as many Elvish Pioneers and cultivates will be what you need, your opening hand needs to have at least 3 lands, 2 cultivates and 2 elvish pioneers.

Strategy:
Play a land and a pioneer, putting another land onto the battlefield. Next turn play a land then a cultivate, you should have 4 lands on the field, on turn 3 play a land, another cultivate, and then another pioneer.

There are 5 achievements with a total of 100 points

Welcome to the Club

20
Add an unlocked expansion card to a deck
Simple, play one or two rounds in the campaign to unlock some new cards and then add one of them (or multiple ones depending on how you want to make your deck) to one of your decks. Make sure to save the changes and it will unlock.
Deconstructor

20
Defeat Captain Vronos
Story related
Captain Vronos is the final fight of the campaign.
Murderous Tendencies

20
Control creatures with total power 20 or more with the Garruk deck

It has been claimed that it is possible to unlock this outside of the expansion campaign, feel free to try but its quite possible to do as Garruk is a green PlanesWalker which means he has access to some pretty big creatures. Play it safe and it should not be too difficult to obtain, though playing on Apprentice difficulty is recommended in order to prevent losing creatures often.
Conflux Capacitor

20
Complete the Alara collection
Similiar to the main games counterpart, after finishing the campaign, play the exploration node until this pops.
Fly My Pretties

20
Have ten or more Thopter artifact creature tokens on the battlefield under your control
(7)
This one can be a bit tricky. The only creature that can produce Thopter creatures is Sharding Sphinx. Construct a blue and red deck, with counter spells, draw spells, and damage/burn spells (pretty much anything to get rid of your opponents creatures and spells to draw your more cards with more chances to draw the sphinx. Do not deal any damage to your opponent with creatures/spells Other than Sharding Sphinx. After two attacks you should have the 10 tokens needed. if not keep attacking with the sphinx until you do without killing your opponent.