Magic 2014 Duels of the Planeswalkers tier list
Tier lists are controversial for lots of reasons. Players will argue if matchup strength is more important than consistency. Or the data itself will come into question. Sometimes readers just want to debate whether or not tiers even exist. But here at Top Tier Tactics, the general thought is “well, we’ve got tier in the name, might as well have a got at it.” With that philosophy in mind, I’ve put together the definitive, ultra-official, right-until-you-prove-otherwise breakdown of the best decks in the game.
Please note: Except where stated, decks are in no particular order within their tiers.
S-Tier
Decks in the S-Tier have speed, synergy, and removal, placing them extremely well against other decks. In this case, Avacyn’s Glory establishes clear threats as early as turn 1 (Champion of the Parish), then continues to pile on efficiently-costed cards that only increase the value of existing permanents (like Gather the Townsfolk). While AG has plenty of scary late game cards (primarily angels), the deck’s synergy means that even a turn 12 Mentor of the Meek can cause a splash by triggering effects or enabling combos.
As if this wasn’t enough, Avacyn’s Glory is packed with spot removal: Fiend Hunter and Oblivion Ring are just two examples. This means that even when an opponent gets a moderately sized threat into play, it can be swept out of the way in time for lethal damage. While AG is theoretically weak to board sweeps and mass burn, these types of cards are notoriously absent in the Magic 2014 metagame (at least pre-DLC). For these reasons it should be no surprise that Avacyn’s Glory comprised 100% of the top 3 decks in the T3 August Tournament.
A-Tier
- Deadwalkers
- Mind Maze
Decks in the A-Tier have a lot of the power of Avacyn’s Glory, but are open to weaknesses their S-Tier counterpart doesn’t share. Both Deadwalkers and Mind Maze are capable of putting incredible damage on the board early in the game, though neither can win on Turn 4 under normal conditions. These decks feature creatures that geometrically increase the power of their brethren, often at the expense of the opponent. And both decks can create tempo situations that are difficult or impossible to recover from.
For Mind Maze, that means getting a few big (or small) illusions on the board, then protecting them with countermagic. For Deadwalkers, sacrifice effects can essentially limit opponent creature counts (while DW itself continues unhindered). A-Tier picks fall short, however, in a few important situations.
In DW, it’s board stall. There are few cards in the necrotic pile that allow it to break through or climb over a solid defense, not withstanding inconsistent cards like Grave Pact. On Mind Maze’s side, there’s the omnipresent threat of any targeting whatsoever. The blue deck’s lords do protect its fragile creatures to some extent, but if these cards aren’t pulled, there is no guarantee the entire illusory army is safe from, say, Fiery Justice.
B-Tier
What do the B-Tier decks have in common? Much like the S and A-Tier lists, they’re capable of producing clear and present danger in the form of powerful creatures. They’re also brimming with inter-card synergy, ensuring late game draws are relevant no matter what. Every sliver dropped is another boon to the hive. Both creatures and enchantments are valuable as long as the other is sitting around. And for Eldrazi fanatics, even basic lands can be game-winning bombs.
Although all three B-Tier options are slower than the higher-rated decks, they all have powerful stall mechanics to help them reach the mid-game. Sliver Hive has tons of removal, including Fiery Justice, which is incredibly powerful against most of the decks in Magic 2014. Chant of Mul Daya can rely on a surplus of tempo tricks and the epic All is Dust sweeper, while Guardians of Light can easily reach 100+ life with just a few cards.
But these benefits come at a cost: the B-Tier decks are simply too fragile to reliably beat their betters. A sniped Bonescythe Sliver can dismantle an entire attack, as can well-timed removal on an Artizan of Kozilek or a 15/15 triple-aura’d enchantress. While all three of these decks have some means to protect their fatties, these methods simply are not reliable against effects like exile, sacrifice, or bounce… the main tools of the top three decks.
C-Tier
Decks this far down aren’t exactly bad but… they’re not good either. With a godlike draw, they can beat the B-Tier handily, but will still struggle to outpace S or A-Tier decks for a variety of reasons. And sure they can all smash Enter the Dracomancer, but I could beat up the paraplegic kid in my high school and you don’t see anyone patting me on the back.
Interestingly, all three decks at this level have a different problem. For Masks of the Dimir, it’s creature strength. Since this blue/black deck is extremely light on removal, you’d imagine it would be packing lots of scary critters like Vampire Nighthawk, right? Instead, it’s stuck with rats that are behind-the-curve for power and toughness. And while the discard/tempo effects of these rodents would be powerful against midrange, combo, or control decks, those types of opponents simply aren’t in large supply in Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014.
Hunter’s Strength has a lot of the same issues as Guardians of Light. It’s got nasty creatures and big-buff enchantments, but it’s too easily dismantled by even small amounts of removal. What sets GL ahead in B-Tier is that even when its huge beatsticks die, they have typically produced a large amount of card draw or life gain in the process. When a pumped Garruk’s Companion bites the dust, you pretty much just lost two cards (and most of your momentum).
Firewave is easily the worst of the C-Tier for several reasons. First, its creatures under four converted mana cost are mostly terrible. You won’t find Kiln Fiends, Kirkstrom Nobles, or even decent goblins here. Second, the burn spells included are pretty much trash, too. Shocks, Lightning Bolts, and Fireblasts are nowhere to be found. But more importantly, there’s basically no mass-damage sweepers like Pyroclasm or Earthquake, meaning once Firewave falls behind, it’s never catching up.
Again, these decks can win, but it’s an uphill battle. Masks of the Dimir is probably best suited to take on the B-Tier, if only because its tempo tricks are stronger than HS’s brute strength or FW’s… um… earnest desire to win?
D-Tier
The only deck in the D-Tier has a D in its name. There’s a joke there somewhere. Regardless, enter the Dracomancer sucks compared to the rest of the decks in Magic 2014. None of its early game plays are scary. Its huge bombs are slow and susceptible to every type of removal in the game. Not only that, its dragons rely on consuming your other creatures for power, so you’ll typically sac everything for a game-winning swing… then lose your sky lizard when he eats a Path to Exile.
Maybe Enter the Dracomancer could have been good, but it would’ve required a lot of utility cards. Battlefield-decimating burn spells would’ve been a start. Or how about some kind of control-ish artifact like Ensnaring Bridge? Dragons love artifacts. The deck could have included some reanimation tricks to bring back slain bombs, or green sorceries to fetch game-winners straight out of the library.
Unfortunately, none of that happened and, as a result, Enter the Dracomancer is simply not competitive, even with the best possible hands. While I’ve never been a fan of dragon decks, it always sucks to see one pile get left so far behind.
Bonus DLC speculation
Sylvan Might
Fact: Elves have never been bad in Duels of the Planeswalkers. Fact: Elves have never been bad in casual Magic anywhere. Therefore it stands to reason Sylvan Might will continue the tradition of being a generally competent option. Imperious Perfect, Coat of Arms, and a lot of elves mean trouble for anything that can’t contain key cards (C and D-Tier decks). Expect this to drop into lower B-Tier, losing primarily to the Izzet deck and possibly Lord of Darkness.
Sword of the Samurai
Hey look – it’s another creature-based aggro deck! That’s not surprising in and of itself, but the fact that it’s chock full of powerful equipment kind of throws a wrench in the works. Very few decks in Magic 2014 have good answers for artifacts, and the ones that do almost never run them main deck. No matter how good your B, A, or S-Tier deck is, it will be facing real problems if it can’t contain an Umezawa’s Jitte, a card that warped its metagame considerably.
Dodge and Burn
Sporting tons of sweeping burn, to-the-face burn, and burn-activated creatures, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Dodge and Burn become DOTP’s first-ever “strong” Izzet deck. With a dozen ways to roast weenies as early as Turn 2, Dodge and Burn will pose real problems for the current S and A-tier decks. If it comes down to topdecks, DB will take victory with fire to the face.
That siad, many B-Tier decks will be the only ones surviving the initial cleansing, and Izzet will have a tough fight against the lifegain of Mul Daya and Guardians of Light. Slivers could go either way, and Dimir could pose problems even if its rats get roasted. As such, I’m placing Dodge and Burn in solid B-Tier.
Hall of Champions
This kind of terrible exalted deck becomes a not-so-bad beats deck when you drop out 80% of the stock cards and replace them with Daunltess Escorts, Rhox War Monks, and a bunch of undercosted angels. Throw in 4x Bant Charm, a decent amount of lifelink, and two copies of Martial Coup and you might just have enough to survive early game rushes. Another solid mid-range deck, Hall of Champions could work in tandem with the other DLC to pull Avacyn’s Glory out of the S-Tier (although it will be landing on a pillow of power in A-Tier).
Lords of Darkness
A bit of a strange battlecruiser-type deck, Lords of Darkness relies on a little stall, a lot of removal, and demons, glorious demons, to win the day. It doesn’t have a lot of sweepers and only a few “you lose” enchantments, so I don’t think this is going to be a powerhouse, especially against removal-based decks. Hell, even Firewalkers may fare well against it with the right build. As such, it feels like it’s destined for the C-Tier.
I don’t know if I’d describe Sword of the Samurai as agro. bushido creatures are pretty underwhelming attackers.
“closer to mono black control than Deadwalkers is.”
What, exactly, is Dickwalkers OTHER than control? Every single nonland noncreature in the deck is removal and/or stalling. Hell, a few of the creatures are, too.
Samurais might change the rule of “Noncreatures in DotP14 suck”, leading to it getting hosed really really hard when its opponents sideboard in their artifact hate. Still I see both quick, cheap attackers and terribly high-costed almost decent cards. (We call them the Victims of Kamigawa.) I like branching options for building, but DotP’s limited card pool means that neither aggro nor control will get the cards they want.
Deadwalkers lacks typical control elements like sweepers, draw engines, etc. It feels to me to be a much more synergy-fueled midrange.
I actually like the card draw and tutoring in DW better than the card draw in LoD. I wish LoD got Sign in Blood and Vampiric Tutor.
Here are the stats from the last tournament:
Avacyn’s Glory: 44 Wins, 27 Losses, 63% Win Rate
Sliver Hive: 10,6, 63%
Mind Maze: 27, 20, 57%
Dead Walkers: 27, 20, 57%
Guardians of Light: 4, 8, 33%
Firewave: 5, 11, 31%
Chant of the Mul Daya: 7, 17, 29%
Enter the Dracomancer: 1, 3, 25%
Hunter’s Strength: 1, 4, 20%
Masks of the Dimir: 2, 12, 17%
Based on this (and from my own playtesting), I’d say that Guardians of Light is probably C-tier. There’s so much spot removal in Duels 2014 that aura’s don’t really cut it anymore, especially with no hexproof creatures. Mul Daya is pretty underwhelming as well for the same reasons. You ramp your lands for the entire game to drop a bomb that just gets pathed/doom bladed/countered/etc. After the promos though, I think things will get better with the 3rd All is Dust.
Great Tier List though. Agreed on everything else.
My main arguments for CMD (other than losing to it 5 games in a row as AG last night!) is that properly played it will ramp into Palakkas and Giants, which have an impact even if removed. Nobody really wants to use removal on those lifegain moose or fetch elves, which means tons of stalling until the big boys show up.
Once CMD hits 6 lands, all its topdecks are better than all other decks, and All is Dust basically ensures victory against anything but counters in most cases.
It’s really fucking powerful, but a bit inconsistent at that. Even if you do run 4 Growths, Explores, and Elves (in which case I’ll have to withdraw your man card), in the metagame of DotP14 where everyone spams removal like they just spilled ink all over their essay, it’s easy to just run out of steam.
You can tear through three cards a turn using an Oracle and just cast whatever you topdeck, but when it dies, you’ll be sitting around at five lands with nothing to do. More or less, it hinges directly on the Oracle surviving for at least two turns. There’s little ground between full stomp and losing horribly in the deck.
salute magic mates.
in fact i actually appreciated the idea of these tiers. People will rush to defend this or that deck, but in the end everyone is right, because what really matters is your deck build (from my point of view the game is 50% luck, 15% know-how and When to mulligan, and 35% skill playing and making the deck.)
the D, A and S tiers are pretty much the ones. The “big fight” will be to catalog the other decks on tiers B and C.
in my opinion i disagree with the bottom C-tier FW and B-tier GoL. Thats mainly because of my FW build that keeps defeating both mind maze and deathwalkers and even AG. Well time used spells like reberberate, final fortune, browbeat can make “GG´s” happen, allied to a furnace of wrath. (thats why they put 2 in there). in fact the exile habilities of the sorceries is pretty effecient against DW, and a sismic assault that resolves the batlefiel can do marvels agains ilusionary deck. So i moved FW to tier B and relegate GoL to tier C, cuz i kinda have the same opinion than GooD)WiLL.
about the expantion, i will wait to see, cuz like i said what really matters is your deck build.
Cheers
Despite the tournament results I’d say MM is more S-Tier than AG tbh.
I agree in my experience without being able to pre sideboard your deck MM is strongly favored over AG, AG is strongly favored over DW but DW is only weakly favored over MM.
I think AG did so well because of the format of the tournament with no set decklist favors the most adaptable deck which is AG. But I think for random preconstructed 1v1 MM is king until the next expansion comes out when I think AG will take over because i think it will have better matchups against the new decks.
Not sure if you posted this anywhere but do these tiers also apply to THG and Multiplayer FFA games? For example I find decks like Mask of the Dimir a lot more relevant in THG especially when paired with certain decks and could a tier list be possibly concieved with combonations of decks? (For example Mask and DW)? Just a penny for your thoughts…
No it’s for 1v1 only. Chant and Masks would be way higher for FFA. Firewave still sucks, dragons still suck. AG and MM would be worse, MM being significantly worse since counters are less effective with multiple opponents and you’d have multiple people who could target illusions to pop them. AG is versatile enough to become a midrange angels deck. DW could pull the same.
2HG is hard to judge without deck pairings.
Nooooo WiNG Firewave is awesome and so underrated =( in 1v1 and in 2HG. Great deck for taking out the trinity (probably Samurai too). FW+DW = no f***ing creatures ever, with a high damage output if you do it right. Also a variation of MM which is mostly counter/non-sac/hexproofed illusions with GoL was also pretty hard to beat when 2 friends were using it, besides any decent MTG player in 2HG can still counter like a b****. Just did MM+FW with a friend where he countered pretty much everything that I couldn’t burn while I just burned (almost each turn) every single sliver/illusion that saw the light of day.
Looking forward to a Dodge and Burn and BURN! combo. Zombie Demons combo seems pretty interesting too, play zombies early while demons focus on removal first then swap late game for some beefy demons or something.
Dragons do still suck although they shine a little brighter in a 4 way FFA when you’re the weakest threat you may live long enough to actually do something that has an impact.
This should come as no surprise, the Duels staff is as anti-any-color-but-white-and-green as Toraka is a removal hating elitist. If I didn’t just fucking loooOOOooove MTG more than life itself, I wouldn’t play this venue, but it is just too easy to sit down at my xbox and not have to shell out another 50 bucks to build a decent deck on MTGO. If anyone wants to argue my “white green loving duels staff point” let me point out that the only deck on duels that gives Assholes Glory a good fight is Dead Walkers. You say look at dead walkers its sooooo good and fast and blah blah blah but wait there are like a bajillion zombie spells they could have put in here to make this deck as good as Assholes. There are almost no cards that could have been rotated out of the Assholes deck. I mean the Overseer…and Avacyn…jesus yeah she costs a lot but FUCK, LOOK WHAT SHE DOES!!!
I don’t hate removal, I just dislike it when 70% of decks rely on getting a sole creature to stomp your opponent, with no protection whatsoever, and the rest are swarm decks that start off five turns earlier and contain 20 kill anything removal spells.
I’m not sure why you think they like Green though, considering that DotP’s green decks have always been rather eh. Decent, but not exciting and definitely not overpowered. Perhaps you meant to say black; I can agree with that. Also note that DaB is the only deck with any counters to the swarm strategy whatsoever, while for instance the Samurai deck only gets protection from red, blue, and white as possibilities. Not black, which considering how many black removal spam decks are running around would definitely be a thing. But that’d mean that Deadwalkers would have to lose a game, which is not a thing that happens.
I have to agree with Toraka here. It’s not that removal is bad, but the battlecruiser/lategame decks don’t have sweepers and control elements to survive long enough, and when they do, they eat removal.
Imagine if Masks had 3x Propoganda or 1x Ensnaring Bridge, or 3x Damnation. Imagine if Dracomancer had 4x Pyroclasm or a bunch of efficient walls. Imagine if Firewave had, I don’t know, Lightning Bolts?
Er, Wing, Ensnaring Bridge in Masks would be a really really bad idea. Meishin would be a thing, especially fitting with the whole theme of NO STALLING FOR OVERCOSTED CARDS.
They’re just afraid to give out hosers, I think. Which is why they give the top tier decks removal against anything in the game, because at least that’s not hosing. If I just murder everyone, no one can say I’m a nazi! (Which I’m about the opposite of, just sayin’.)
Let’s talk about less annoying things. It’s Talk Like A Pirate Day! Hinga Ding- I mean, Yarr Harr!
I think Masks would do far better with a bit more early-game disruption. I’d love to pilot a version with a few copies of Black Cat and Mind Rot (… and Hymn to Tourach, but that would be like giving Mind Maze Cryptic Command or Force of Will… oh, wait)
Yes 3 mono-green is quite much, for what it worth I think they have seperated them quite well.
The Elf deck trive in 1-4 mana tribal
The Hunter Strengh trive in 3-6 mana
The Chant of Mul daya trive in 6- mana
The hunter strengh is bad but the two others have good synergy and as mentioned above they trive in opposite phases, elf power boosts fast but run out of cards, Chant has no early power but massive ability to generate “unlimited” card/life/power advantage against the decks with little remove.
Elves run out of cards fast? You played them yet? There’s 4 3 CMC cards to reveal 5 and take all ya creatures, 4 4 CMC 2/2’s that do the same but 4 cards and 2 4 CMC enchantments that can give additional card draw, if you want to use any of them… I don’t think Elves run out of cards that fast lol.
Fair point, I meant between them, Elves do get cards overall.
What I meant was that Chant of Mul daya have alot of “enter the battlefield” card fetchers, so they are more assured to get there cards.
Elfs are mainly tap effects, so they can get killed on your turn when you have casted them, or on the opponents turn.
Giving the opponent more time and also your opponent can see the effects comming.
You guys should actually put the DLC above INTO the tier list.. Ya know.. Make things easier? For those.. lazy guys.. like me.. :P
That or remake the tier list and have a tier (for example) that specifically has like D&B>AG>DW>D&B like a loop..Just a suggestion…Love the site by the way…
Also I’m wondering if you guys will host another tourney with all the new decks out (you should ;D)
Just noticed…
“A bit of a strange battlecruiser-type deck, Lords of Darkness relies on a little stall, a lot of removal, and demons, glorious demons, to win the day. It doesn’t have a lot of sweepers and only a few “you lose” enchantments, so I don’t think this is going to be a powerhouse, especially against removal-based decks. Hell, even Firewalkers may fare well against it with the right build. As such, it feels like it’s destined for the C-Tier.”
Ha. Ha ha. Ha ha ha. Ha ha. Ha ha ha. Ha ha. Ha. Ha. Honestly, who didn’t see it coming. Since when has removal spam ever been a bad option in DotP?
“Since when has removal spam ever been a bad option in DotP?”
Never^
… It’s like I’m talking to a mirror. You doing anything next FNM?
Ahem. If you’re looking for the DLC decks’ tiers, I’ve compiled a video guide that explains them all in detail:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK9X_DsH6ss
Just came back from testing the sunbroest of sunbro decks (exalted). Sure it’s really tough against opponents without 25 removal spells. How many of those do you meet online again? Oh yeah, zero. It’s really really strong and might even be worthy of constructed with perhaps a few tweaks, but removal cuts it harder than any other deck. Tried it against non-revenge AI DaB. Un-fucking-beatable. The only time I got through was with a perfect play (Qasali Pridemage -> Rhox War Monk -> Rafiq) while the AI was mana screwed. Otherwise, not a thing to be had.
Yeah, there was exalted in DotP13, and there it was actually a decent, even if not OP, deck. You know why? Because removal wasn’t handled like candy at a candy convention, no, rather than candy in a dentist’s house.
(Actually, that’s a myth. Being the child of one, I can tell you that dentists are a bit iffy about dental hygiene, but far better than the stories say.)
Hehe, cute video. I wouldn’t exactly call that detailed though xD
“Tried it against non-revenge AI DaB. Un-fucking-beatable.”
Kinda funny how you kept trying against 4 Sulfurous Blast, you’d have to take out everything with 3 toughness or lower out to have consistent wins.
The exalted mechanic was rarely used in DotP13 with all the very-hard-to-remove OP cards like Worship and No Mercy. (I’m pretty sure there were others or ways to tutor the cards)
Once they hit the board, it’s GG from what I remembered.
Another thing I absolutely hate about HoC is the chance I don’t get all 3 colors. It seems very high and can ruin the game before it even starts because you mulled to 5 due to lack of terramorphics/colors.
How burn is balanced: “No, it’s YOUR fault for playing anything with less than four toughness. By the way, Lightning Bolt your dude yet again. Oh, and Flame Slash that one.”
Sure Exalted Darkness wasn’t used as much because it was highly fragile with no real means of protection, but it was decent by itself.
You can circumvent the 3 colour problem, but it’s still clonky and this is one of the times that I wished you could get Noble Hierarch in DotP. Despite that, there’s no chance of booting blue; If nothing else, think Rafiq.
Now the concept of burn seems fair to me when I think of all the things you could have against it. Hexproof, Shroud, Artifact/Enchantment Buffs, Buffs in general, Countermagic, Blinks, Creature Spam(effective against single burn only), and just having a better deck matchup with higher Toughness creatures.
Which DotP14 has a lot of those counters in it.
The color problem alone makes me despise playing HoC.
Sure we’ll give slivers extreme color fixing if they want it(4 rampant growths AND 4 cultivate!?), but screw that exalted deck.
Yeah, we want a deck that’ll rely super duper heavily on the starting hand/draws. (I know every game relies on the opening hand, but there’s so many factors for this deck in particular)
In fact, the only green deck that doesn’t have land ramp.
Except elves but they don’t need it.. seriously… Hate and love the elf deck.
Here’s what I think they did with the elf deck: “Hey guys, uhh, mass removal decks are dominating everyone.”
“Oh yeah?.. Hmm, Suppose we could just make a deck where it doesn’t matter how many times you take ’em out”
“Isn’t that.. uhh”
“Nope”
I’ve just been on a losing streak against Sylvan Might so far, so this might be bias. Maybe I should stop picking random…
It is the one deck that can’t function without its very specific colours (GWWU to cast everything) yet actually has the least mana fixing. Look, Wizards, give me some fucking Rampant Growth already. I’ll trade two of those War Monks for it, and I guess a Charm if you toss in a full playset. Why do mono decks get fixing (Firewave’s 1/1 artifact flier) while we can only gloat at it from afar?
Ugh, anyway. While I’m not a huge fan of it, I see what burn can and can’t do. Still, does Wizards really need to put in a pile filled with tournament-level burn suited for every occasion, hexproof, high toughness, or even pro red, in a game where the decks it faces would be terrible even in Draft?
In other news, Elves are indeed crazy. While I was fucking around as Izzet, I once looked up from the battlefield and saw both of us being at 20 cards in library. At least some decks in the expansion don’t completely suck hairy ass *cough cough*
The problem with FW is that it has incosistent number of early burn spells, just 1 searing spear, flame Slash, flame break, kinda hurt the deck. also most of it’s creatures really suck.. It couldve easily been B tier if it had at least 2 of each. But non the less I think FW is still quite capable and fun.. It is always fun to pull of those clutch wins with final fortune :)
“Still, does Wizards really need to put in a pile filled with tournament-level burn suited for every occasion, hexproof, high toughness, or even pro red, in a game where the decks it faces would be terrible even in Draft?”
Why not? xD
Anyways, I’ve been playing elves and have no idea what to take out.
Everything is good, so it really all comes down to shortening the amount of EVERYTHING to get that good 60 card balance.. stuck at 64 or 66 or something..
Gaea’s Herald: 2 drop for a 1/1 that does nothing against 13/15 decks.
Coming to think of it, doesn’t do anything against any deck whatsoever.
See, Izzet will love to instead just set your dudes on fire, and Illusions will cry itself to sleep when you’re outmassing and outdrawing it.
I guess the conclusion is that DotP14’s meta is shit, fuck demons, and leave that thing out for your own good.
Hey guys, how would the new list after the expansion look like?
I’m interested to read your take on all the new decks since deck pack 3 was just released yesterday. I like Lords of Darkness, Dodge & Burn, and Sylvan Might. I think the first 2 are potentially top tier and elves are fairly strong too. I would love to read an updated list from T3.
I disagree with AG being so strong. I have never had trouble defeating it with Chant of Mul Daya and Deadwalkers, I have even defeated regularly with Hunters Strength. Can’t really see why it is always portrayed as the best.