Update: unlocked Machine Lord!

[thesideburns]

OK, big WTF. I just played a story match ("twin battle" or something) where i'm allied with Faustina against those two blue-looking dudes. Played with a deck specifically designed to get lots of gearions out. Two useful bits of information:

1) Quicksilver is a really easy way to duplicate gearions, because while there are a bunch of creatures with 60mhp, gearions are almost guaranteed to be the highest MHP creature on the board with 80, so once you get a single one out, just use quicksilver's transformation ability to get more.

2) I finished this match with 4 gearions out on the board and DID NOT GET THE ACHIEVEMENT. I mean I still beat a story mode match towards finishing the game, but I'm mad about this. There are a few possible reasons why this achievement didn't unlock...

- I had MORE than 3 gearions out (4) - maybe it has to be exactly 3?

- I only legitimately created two of them in battle via support combination - maybe the quicksilver transformations didn't count?

- Perhaps this achievement cannot be earned in an alliance match, even if it's part of the story mode.

THOUGHTS? I would like to pin down the exact conditions for this achievement before I invest another hour of my life trying to unlock it. In the event that the alliance match was the only problem, then this is in fact a great deck for the achievement, and I can post my decklist.

[zedd]

I believe you have to combine/create them in/during battle. Though the Achievement say "deployed" at the same time. I thought the quick silver idea as well, but I an currently waiting on the other half of the gear to be able to make one.

[thesideburns]

Ok, I just beat the last map in story mode with the same deck, and DID get the Machine Lord achievement. Answers to previous speculation:

1) Having more than 3 gearions in play is fine. I finished with at least 5.
2) I don't remember if I created three in battle, because I used Quicksilvers again. The exact text of the achievement leads me to believe that how the Gearions are created or come into your possession doesn't matter.
3) I'm thinking the 2v2 alliance match had to be the reason why I didn't get the achievement.

As promised, here's the decklist I used to get the achievement, with one post-achievement edit (replaced metamorphose belt with prismatic wand, as gearion --> grass strider is a downgrade)

Deck Name: gearsOwar

Creatures: 18 (36%)

Beast Gear x2
Borgess x2
Brass Idol x2
Clay Idol x2
Ground Gear x3
Sky Gear x3
Quicksilver x2
Necromancer x2

Items: 5 (10%)

Counter Amulet x3
Prismatic Wand x2

Spells: 27 (54%)

Drain Magic x4
Gift x3
Land Protection x3
Permission x3
Prophecy x4
Replace x2
Revelation x2
Revival x3
Trespass x3

The book isn't completely optimized, and I'm sure you could tweak or vary it and still get this achievement just fine. I didn't really rely on the necromancer, but it's nice just in case one of your gear combinations dies in the same battle it's created and you're able to get it back. Between brass idol and all the deck-compression spells, getting the appropriate gears in hand was no problem. It's almost best to do the initial Sky/Ground combination while attacking a battle that will end as a draw. That way you get the lvl2 gear back in your hand so you don't have to worry about picking it up later.

If any of you have a more efficient deck, feel free to post it.

[rathstar]

I'll just say that what I did was this:

place a sky gear next to an opponent's land
move the sky gear onto the land and make andro gear, but not destroy the opponent's creature
move the androgear onto the land and make gearion
kill off the gearion by waiting until the opponent had some awesome item and moving it onto the opponent's land
use necromancer 3 times to get 3 gearions
place 3 gearions

That worked for me, so I'd say you don't have to create 3 gearions from scratch.