The Dragon's BL decks 2/2013

[dragonsdemesne]

Well, another league season come and gone.  This one was my best showing so far, so I'm pretty happy about that.  As I've done for the previous league seasons in which I participated, these are the decks I used and their performance, plus whatever commentary I have to say about them.

Disquake 38-9 = 81% win rate

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4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vl 4vl 4vl 55v 590 590 590 593 593 593 5c1 5c1 5c1 5f6 5og 5og 5v1 61q 61q 8pm

This deck evolved slightly over the season, but the final version is the one above.  After going 8-1, I removed one lycanthrope and added one black hole, and found that the black hole was quite crippling if drawn in the mid to late game after a discord.  This version then went 7-3, after which I decided that the fog was very important, while flying weapon was basically useless (either I had the FW and no extra discords, or I couldn't get 3 entropy quanta for another discord, or I'd won/lost already, or never drew it in the first place) so I took it out and added a second fog shield.  This third version went 17-3.  Then I decided that I had too much quanta and not enough creatures, having lost a game or two due to quanta flood and/or drawing no damage, so I dropped a pillar and added another forest spirit.  This version went 6-2.

Looking at the losses, most of them were against grabbow or immorush, for obvious reasons; the disquake combo is weak against them.  I had one loss to adrenastaves, one loss to a SoP novabow, 3 losses to grabbows, one loss to a blessed forest scorpion deck (my notes say I had no pillars in the first 17 cards, so I think that was an anomaly), one loss to blessed dunes, one loss to "the deck" (my notes say I was quanta flooded and got no creatures; this was the loss that prompted me to go -1 pillar +1 spirit) and one loss to a novaimmobow rush.  It appears that it won every single game except one (adrenastaves) against monos.  It did very well against large stalls, only losing once to 'the deck' due to a bad draw.  (earthquake completely wrecks 'the deck' if drawn early)  This was definitely one of my best decks this season.  I did use it last season as well, but I hadn't refined it quite as nicely, so it only performed about average.  (I think I ended last season using the version I started with this season, and had tweaked it to that point then much like I tweaked it here)  It was also my most used deck of the season, even beating out the hated 'the deck' in all its variants in frequency of use.  I'd probably take a mark for this deck as a reward if it weren't a rainbow and thus really hard to do such a thing.

Bonebolt 5-3 = 63% win rate

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4sk 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52h 52o 52o 52o 52o 52o 52o 52q 52q 52q 52r 52r 52r 52r 61q 61q 61q 61q 61q 61q 8pu

Really nothing particularly special about this deck.  Simple, but fairly effective.  The lone dragon was added because I figured people might discard their CC early or waste it or something like that, and there was also the surprise factor of holding it back and playing it for an otk or something similar.  I made the deck 31 cards, since if an arsenic were drawn late or it were against purify or something, it could possibly just deck out to some 30 card decks, but it never came down to deckout in any of the 8 matches.  Bonebolt defeated grabbow, a water/fire pump creature duo, DBH (twice) and another bonebolt in a mirror match.  It lost to disquake, accelerarmagio, and monofire.  I didn't use this one too often, because it wasn't winning as often as I'd have hoped, but I did pick it on occasion to be unpredictable.  I hate being predictable... :p  It also succeeds quite well against grabbow and similar decks that are quite popular.  Also, I had to use the mark of death I won in the last BL season, which I'd taken for my death/light stall.

Monoentropy dick 15-5 = 75% win rate

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4sj 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vd 4vd 4ve 4ve 4vf 4vf 4vf 4vf 4vf 4vf 4vl 4vl 4vl 4vl 500 500 50u 50u 50u 50u 50u 50u 50u 8pj

I ran this deck unmodified from last season, where it went 20-6, so it performed almost identically in the meta for this season as well.  It lost to a lycanthrope liquid antimatter deck, monofire, immorush, disquake, and 'it's a trap'.  Surprisingly to me, it defeated grabbow three times, which seems like it should be a weak matchup, but perhaps grabbow simply can't handle the number of creatures in this deck.  The only mono it lost to was that monofire, and possibly the immorush. (not sure if that was a monofire or not, but immo defeats discord fairly handily either way)  You can expect to see this deck next season as well, maybe with changes, maybe not.

Catatitan 1-2 = 33% win rate

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55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55s 55s 55s 55s 55s 55s 561 561 561 576 576 576 5og 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 5on 5on 8pr

After last season, Marsu told me that one of his best decks had been catatitans, so I decided to give it a try.  Man, was I disappointed.  The only game it won was against... another catatitans.  (kind of like the old internet joke about 'French military defeats'... the only French 'victory' listed was the French civil war, which was won, and I quote, "primarily because the opponent was also French."  The other two losses were to disquake and monoentropy, which, while admittedly bad matchups, left a rather sour taste in my mouth when it came to this deck.  I remember one tourney using catatitans, and being very frustrated because I didn't draw any flying weapons in the top 20 cards or so.  On the turn when I was about to lose, I topdeck a flying weapon, fly a titan I'd had out since turn 2, and catapult it for the win.  Catatitans is just one of those decks that likes to troll me... every single time, even when I win with it :p

monodark dragondrain 1-2 = 33% win rate

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4st 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5ul 5ul 5ul 5ul 5ul 5uo 5uo 5up 5ur 5ur 5us 5us 5us 5us 5us 5us 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 8pt

After my first win with this deck, I was fairly excited, and thought I might have something new to use this season.  After the next two losses, I decided I didn't, after all :p  It defeated monofire and lost to monoentropy and an earth/water duo.  I had modeled it after a deck frequently used in the World Championships, but it performed a lot better in that environment than in BL.

"The Deck" stall (sundial version) 26-8 = 76% win rate

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4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4vp 4vp 4vp 4vp 52r 52r 52r 58v 58v 5cq 5cq 5ia 5ia 5li 5li 5lm 5lm 5lm 5m6 5m6 5m6 5m6 5m6 5m6 5ol 5ol 5rl 5rl 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rp 5up 61q 61q 61q 61q 61q 8pq

The deck that everyone loves to hate... (sorry, everyone!)  It dropped noticeably from its performance for me last season (people started to expect me to use it too much, so I had to reduce my usage of it to compensate) but it was still a top tier deck in spite of that.  I think I tweaked it a bit; I don't think I ran a steal last season, for instance, but it was mostly unmodified.  I tweaked it a bit on occasion when people banned shards or miracle, but most of the time I ran this version.  Instead of miracle I would use nymph/dragon, or, after I spun another light nymph, two of them, and instead of the shards, I'd typically use more sanctuaries, a 6th lightning, and a couple mindgates. 

It lost once to grabbow (1 pillar draw), once in a 'the deck mirror',  THREE times to monotime pharaohs (a good counter to the deck as well), once to monowater SoP, and twice to monofire (my notes say 1 pillar draws here, and I had several wins vs firestall, so I suspect those were bad luck losses against monofire)  I was lucky enough not to face much earthquake/trident with "the deck", but whenever I used them against "the deck", a situation that frequently occurred, I nearly always won, because "the deck" relies so heavily on having plentiful quanta from the quantum pillars that if it loses them early, it is almost always doomed.

I'll almost certainly be using this deck again next season, but it will probably undergo changes first.  I want to fit in a pair of mindgates, just because they are so fun, and they are actually quite solid in this deck, anyway.  I'm not sure what else I'll do to it yet...

Shardless "The Deck" 1-1 = 50% win rate

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4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4vp 4vp 4vp 4vp 4vp 52r 52r 52r 58v 58v 5ia 5ia 5li 5li 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5ol 5ol 5rl 5rl 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rp 5up 61q 61q 61q 61q 61q 61q 623 623 8pq

At some point, apparently late in the season, I formalized a shardless version of the deck I could just copy/paste, rather than edit the other one numerous times.  It won once against grabbow (the deck almost always beats grabbow) and lost once against disquake, for reasons already described.  (the sundial deck beat grabbow 3/4 times, for example)

"The Deck" Mindgate/extra CC/sundialless version 3-1 = 75% win rate

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4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4vp 4vp 4vp 4vp 52r 52r 52r 58v 58v 5cq 5cq 5cq 5ia 5ia 5ia 5li 5li 5lm 5lm 5lm 5m6 5m6 5m6 5m6 5m6 5m6 5ol 5ol 5rl 5rl 5rl 5up 61q 61q 61q 61q 61q 61q 623 623 8pq

Simply another version of the deck, not really much to say.  I think the other ones are stronger.

firestall 13-2 = 87% win rate

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4so 5cq 5cq 5cq 5cq 5cq 5cq 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f5 5f5 5f7 5f7 5f7 5fk 5fk 5fk 5fk 8pn

Well, damn!  I didn't realize until just now that this deck had a better win rate than disquake... The weird thing is, I ran it last season with I think this exact deck list, and its performance was low enough that I almost didn't even use it this season, but when it started winning a lot more after giving it another chance, I kept it around.  Once or twice I tried running deflags, but I don't think they were really needed in most games.  Still, it might be a good idea to include one, for emergencies.  Plus, if people know I'm using it, they'll play around it, sometimes even to their own detriment.  If I hadn't already taken a fire mark for a firestall in my second CL season, I'd probably do that now.  It lost only to a 500hp EM deck (can you say 'hard counter'... :p) and to a 30 card monofire rush.  It never went up against 'the deck', but based on my record in the reverse scenario, the deck usually trumps firestall due to the SoDs preventing OTK. 

rushin' russian grabbow 5-4 = 56% win rate

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4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4vh 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 52q 52q 55q 55q 590 590 590 590 5c1 5c1 5c1 5f6 5f6 5lf 5og 5og 5v1 61q 61q 8pm

Well... not happy with this result.  I had to have a grabbow around for BL, though :p  It lost to another grabbow, twice to the deck, and once against SoW deathstalkers with dimshields.  It beat NT/pillar rush, monoaether twice, FFQ, and monogravity.  I'll surely have a grabbow next season, but it won't be this version :p

death/light shardstall 2-2 = 50% win rate

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4sq 534 53e 53e 53e 53e 53e 53e 542 542 542 542 542 542 542 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5ld 5lh 5lh 5li 5li 5li 5li 5li 5ls 5m6 5m6 5m6 5m6 5m6 5m6 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 8pq

I think I overused this deck last season; it performed a lot better there.  I also quickly realized that it would lose to 'the deck' every single time, and 'the deck' was very popular, so I quit using it fairly early on this season.  It won against an SoP wardenbow and an earth/water SoP stall (fairly surprising it did so well against shard of patience, actually :p) and lost to a grabbow on a bad quanta draw and to a 60 card monoearth stall. (I got decked out due to stoneskins)  I spun two more light nymphs late this season, so I might revisit this deck with three light nymphs next season.  The other variants of this deck that I've seen involve either arsenics and 6 poisons (which I've never found room for, myself) or 3-4 dragons for extra damage.  Nymphs would give me extra damage along with even more healing power.

monotime rares only pharaoh 5-4 = 56% win rate

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4ss 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5ro 5ro 5ro 5rs 5rs 5rs 5rs 5rs 5rs 5s4 5s4 5se 5se 5se 5se 5se 5se 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 8ps

Another deck that performed a lot better last season.  I did have some fairly bad matchups, but even so, I had hoped for more.  I really like this deck for some reason, and I wish it had been more successful.  It defeated monofire, momentum dunes, monoair, some weird rainbow, and a SoP-novabow, while losing to grabbow twice, DBH, and a SoP-novabow.  (the same SoP-novabow; my opponent and I used the same decks twice in a row)  I don't know what it is about this deck, but I always have a lot of fun using it.  I saw a bunch of other people using it or similar decks this season as well, possibly because I'd posted it at the end of last season.  (I know that's why people used "the deck" so much this season; I'd posted it, and it was my highest win rate by far that season)

UG direct damage 4-3 = 57% win rate

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4sr 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5of 5of 5of 5og 5og 5ol 5ol 5ol 5om 5om 5om 5om 5om 5om 5p0 8po

This deck does better than it looks like it should, but it didn't do quite well enough for me to be happy with it.  I really wish I had a couple more air nymphs to put in this, but alas, I only have one.  If I didn't use all my codes for marks due to rarity, I would definitely take an air nymph, because it is the best nymph by far that I still only have one of.  This deck would be a lot scarier if it had two or three nymphs...   Maybe next season I'll spin some!

It defeated immophoenixgolem (gas > this entire deck's 1hp creatures), a SoB/SoFr dragonfly immophoenix (again, gas > phoenix/dragonfly), ghostmare, and a light/earth 500hp stall.  The light/earth matchup was quite remarkable, actually; I had the nymph very early, and I ended the game blowing up something like seventeen unstable gases for a gigantic OTK.  My losses were to an entropy rush with deflags off the mark, a monofire, and a shard golem deck.

nymphs like staffs (adrenastaff with 3 nymphs 2 dragons) 0-1 = 0% win rate

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5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bt 5bt 5c5 5c5 5c5 5c5 5c5 5c5 5cg 5cg 5cg 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 8pr

I built this right after Marsu beat my disquake with nearly the same deck.  (though he had some standalone life marks)  It got hard countered by a huge firestall, and I never used it again.

Crescendo (SoP/warden/dev novabow) 1-1 = 50% win rate

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4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 52q 52q 596 596 596 596 5c9 5f6 5f6 5j2 5j2 5j2 5lb 5rq 5rq 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 8pm

Very early this season, Afdarenty used a SoP-bow that had a lot of creatures that benefited directly in some way from SoP.  Wardens, scarabs, deja vus, pegasi, and so on.  I thought the deck was a veritable work of art, and told him so.  Then I stole it :p  I discovered that three shards of patience simply is not enough; you need 4 to reliably draw it.  I won one game due to an early mitodevourer against a life/fire duo by treebeard, which was very innovative, but my devs were little RNG haxxors and kept taking the quanta he needed.  It lost to 'it's a trap'.  In the first game, my notes say all three SoPs were in the bottom 5 cards; in the second game, they were all in the bottom seven.

The real Neptune (gnome/warden/squid/SoP/trident) 18-4 = 82% win rate

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58u 58u 58u 58u 58u 58u 596 596 596 596 596 596 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5ia 5ia 5ib 5ib 5ib 5ic 5ic 5j2 5j2 5j2 5j2 8pp

Most of the decks I used this season were either ones I used last season already, or ones that, while new to me, were not new to the community in general.  This deck was different.  Of all the decks I used this season, I think I'm most proud of this one by far in terms of creativity and win rate.  This deck is surprisingly versatile, and does well against all manner of opposing decks.  It is also very carefully constructed, although it might not appear so at first glance.

Firstly, the quanta base.  Earth pendulums, gnomes, and water mark were precisely chosen, such that you'd get the quanta in the order you'd need it in the early turns.  (earth first, for gnomes first, then wardens, and then 3+ water quanta on turn 2; even with 1 pend, you have 3, and any water card can then be played)

Even with 8 pendulums, the 6 gnomes and very low quanta cost of all the cards means that the deck is almost never quanta screwed or flooded.  Shard of patience buffs no less than fifteen creatures (half the deck!) and can grow an army extremely fast.  6 wardens + 3 squids mean you have a lot of CC on demand, and you can stop even rushes like grabbow due to the fact that SoP has made your creatures quickly unkillable by most CC themselves.  Tridents provide earthquake on a stick, and that helped against quite a few other decks.  Two purify were added, because it looked like poison was a weakness of this deck; it would get around all of the ubiquitous CC, and even the tridents, since poison can be run on very little quanta.  (plus, I always feel slightly naked without any healing in a deck :p)  This deck is a strong contender for one of my mark codes, though I already have an earth mark, and I plan to take a water mark for one of the tourney marks I'm owed, so I'm not sure if I will or not.

This deck's 4 losses were UG/dragon (it gets around everything I've got, and apparently the opponent had 5 gases before I had enough damage out), a monotime pharaoh with eternity (eternity wrecks this deck), a grabbow, and a shard golem deck.  (immortal shard golems... grr :p)  It defeated a wide range of decks, including ones like disquake, monotime pharaoh, FFQ/hope, monoaether, pandebonium, monofire, and so on.

Phoenixbolt 6-0 = 100% win rate

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4so 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f6 5f6 5f7 5f7 5f7 5fc 5fc 5fc 5fc 5fc 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 8po

It's so simple, but it's so good :p  I used this last season, but only twice; it was 1-1 then.  This deck, combined with the success of firestall, has had me leaning towards a fire mark for a reward code as well; only the fact that the fire mark I already have came from firestall has kept me from making that decision for sure.  It beat grabbow, rainbow NT, monoaether, DBH/EQ trio, shard golem, and a monodeath rush.  (and lost to nothing! woo! :p though 6 games is hardly a large sample size)  This deck will certainly be in my arsenal next season.  I also have an interesting idea for a fire/aether duo for next season, which will borrow fairly heavily from this deck... be warned!

devtal 4-1 = 80% win rate

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5ul 5ul 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5up 5up 5ut 5ut 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 622 622 622 622 8pu

It's devtal; not much to say.  Everyone knows about this deck.  Not surprisingly, the loss was to immonovabow, which gets around the devourers quite nicely.  It beat a mitodev deck, a monogravity, a death mark quad, and adrenastaves.

Yet Another 60 card stall 3-1 = 75% win rate

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4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4vp 4vp 4vp 50a 50a 50a 52r 52r 56i 56i 56i 5cq 5cq 5f5 5ia 5ia 5li 5li 5lm 5lm 5lm 5m6 5m6 5m6 5m6 5ol 5ol 5rl 5rl 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rp 61q 61q 61q 61q 61q 623 8pq

This was another deck in my hunt to find something capable of beating the grabbow/the deck/SoP trinity.  I kind of mashed together my sundial "the deck" together with the gravity mark SoF one, and this was the result.  Most of the card choices should be fairly obvious, after reading the descriptions for those decks I've already done, both this season and last.  The fire shield was an attempt to have counters for immortal creatures, as well as to ease the strain on other quanta (2x bone wall instead of 3, and fire was unused, plus life for SoG was already used, so I didn't use a carapace)  The shards of serendipity were a way to try and give myself some more win conditions via damage, as well as that crucial bit of unpredictability.  "The deck" is already unpredictable enough; with its size and many different types of cards it only runs a few each of, it's hard to know what your opponent might have in hand... but after a SoSe is played?  They could have almost anything :p  It defeated an air mark wings grabbow, an antimatter/lycan deck, and another 'the deck', so it actually beat two of the three.  Its loss came to an SoP novabow, which, unfortunately, was the other deck I had hoped to beat with this variant.

the soapbox 2-3 = 40% win rate

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4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vq 4vq 52i 52i 563 563 58u 58u 596 596 5bv 5bv 5f1 5f1 5j2 5j2 5j2 5j2 5j2 5od 5od 5rh 626 626 8pp

I'm not going to lie; I plagiarized this from S2xaT5No :p  He seemed to have a lot of success against me with it; unfortunately, when I used it, I never seemed to have much luck.  I don't know what he called it, but I named it "the soapbox" because SoP kind of looks like/sounds like 'soap', and 'box'... well, it's got a lot of different creatures.  It defeated monofire dragon/rain of fire and monotime pharaoh/SoR, and lost to a monotime GotP/nymph/eternity, a chrysaora/sundial trio, and to monoaether (dims = screwed).

the earth/dark voidstall 1-2 = 33% win rate

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4sm 4st 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 593 593 593 593 593 593 594 594 594 594 594 594 59c 59c 59c 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5uo 5up 5up 5up 5up 5ur 5us 5us 5us 5us 5us 5us 5vi 5vi 5vi 5vi 5vi 5vi 8pt

Yet another attempt to beat the aforementioned trinity.  It was not successful in anything except being somewhat creative.  I hadn't seen one of these around, before, but the reason is because it just doesn't work that well.  A smaller version might've had more success, and I did see someone use a ~40 card version of something like this once (I think I lost to it, too) but I didn't try to streamline the deck; I didn't think it had enough potential.  It beat a very strange entropy/UG novabow, and lost to 'it's a trap' and a death/water NT deck.

monowater stall 1-1

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5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i8 5i8 5i8 5i8 5i8 5i8 5ia 5ia 5ia 5ia 5ia 5ia 5ib 5ib 5ib 5ib 5ib 5ib 5io 5io 5j2 5j2 5j2 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 8pp

This was a somewhat successful deck from last season.  I busted it out a couple times just for the unpredictability factr.  It beat maxwell's buckler and lost to a life/NT duo.

ghostmare 0-2 = 0% win rate

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4ss 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rk 5rk 5rk 5rk 5ru 5ru 5ru 5ru 5ru 5ru 5s4 5s4 5ur 5v1 5v1 5v1 5v1 5v1 8pt

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4ss 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rk 5rk 5rk 5rk 5ro 5ro 5ru 5ru 5ru 5ru 5ru 5ru 5v1 5v1 5v1 5v1 5v1 5v1 8pt

Ghostmare just hates me when I use it.  I can never seem to build a good ghostmare, even in the arena, for some reason.  I must just have a mental block against it...  The top deck lost to disquake, and the second lost to a death/light poison/SoSa/SoD stall.

Decks only used one time in league:

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The 60 card SoF deck 1-0

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4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4vp 4vp 4vp 4vp 52r 52r 52r 56i 56i 56i 56i 56i 56i 5cq 5cq 5cq 5ia 5ia 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5ol 5ol 5rl 5rl 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rp 5up 61q 61q 61q 61q 61q 623 623 8pl

I don't even want to know how unpopular this would have become had I decided to keep using it :p  I had been experimenting with 'the deck' variants that could also beat other 'the decks'.  Unfortunately, shards of focus will die to early lightning or pande or what have you, so I don't think it would have worked for that.  I did have the rather interesting little combo of using pandemonium after a shard had been activated at least once; literally any result except lobo is a benefit.  You'll either damage your shard, allowing an extra use, or RT or PU it, allowing even more uses.  Shard of focus also combos rather beautifully with bone walls; when it dies, you get two more walls, a fact I exploited a lot in my first CL season, when SoF was an 'other' card.  Due to the lack of SoDs (though they could have been added) and the strain on both gravity and light quanta (the reason I took miracles out), I didn't think it could become competitive enough in BL, so I dropped the deck.

red nymph dolls (1-0)

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4so 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f6 5f6 5fb 5fb 5fc 5fc 5fk 5fk 5fk 5fk 5ur 5v0 5v0 5v0 5v0 8pt

Used once vs treebeard when we agreed to use unusual decks, as we did the last few matches of the season.  It defeated a psion/frog mitosis/silence duo.  Red nymphs countered the whole thing.  Man, I love my red nymphs...

sosebow (1-0)

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4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sj 4vc 50a 50a 50a 50a 50a 50a 50u 590 5c1 5f6 5ia 5lm 5oh 5rk 5up 61q 8pj

Another one used vs treebeard when we agreed to use unusual decks.  It defeated a turquoise nymph/PU/fractal deck, primarily because he drew no turquoise nymphs until very very late.  He'd have kicked my ass with even one early.

the silly monolife stall 1-0

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5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5c3 5c3 5c4 5c4 5c5 5c6 5c6 5c6 5c6 5c6 5c6 5c8 5c8 5c8 5c8 5c8 5c8 5c9 5c9 5c9 5c9 5c9 5c9 5cg 5cg 5cg 5cq 5cq 5cq 5cq 5cq 5cq 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 8pn

This was used only once, when treebeard and I both agreed to use more unconventional decks.  It defeated his titansader.  It is an unupped version of my favourite life deck.

graboid rush 0-1

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4sm 4t4 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 590 590 590 590 590 590 593 593 593 593 593 593 59c 59c 59c 5rk 8ps

Such a simple concept... and yet I never saw it done in BL.  I gave it one try, but my RNG was absolutely atrocious.  My notes say that I never got a single graboid in 17 cards, and that my first 9 cards were 2 pillars 3 nymphs and 4 EQs.  Pretty sure that this deck would have bombed had I continued to use it.

OE/SoG stall 0-1

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4sr 5cq 5cq 5cq 5cq 5cq 5cq 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 5ol 5ol 5ol 5ol 5ol 5ol 5oo 5oo 5oo 5oo 5oo 5oo 5pu 5pu 5pu 8pn

I lost to a death/water dry spell/afla/boneyard death effects deck with this, which I took as a bad omen :p  Plus, the deck wasn't really anything all that special last season, so I dropped it.

Decks built but never used in league:

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Swallow 0-0 (not played)

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55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55r 55r 55r 55r 55r 55r 55t 55t 568 568 56i 56i 56i 56i 5j2 5j2 5j2 5j2 8pp

I didn't actually use this deck in BL, but I had built it, then tested it in pvp1 to see if it was any good.  It turns out that grabbow is simply too fast for it, and grabbow was one of the main decks this was designed to beat, so I saw it as a failure.  Still, it serves as an indicator of how my brain was trying to come up with new decks later on in the season to counter the meta I'd been exposed to.  I had been trying to build a deck that could beat all three of grabbow, "the deck", and SoP stalls.  I don't think this deck did any of that.  Disquake was probably the closest I got to having a chance against all three, and is a big part of why that deck was so successful this season.  (there were a lot of grabbow/the deck/SoP stalls)

Supa Dupa Fly (0-0) (not played)

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4sr 5j2 5j2 5j2 5j2 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5od 5od 5od 5od 5od 5od 5oe 5oe 5oe 5oe 5oe 5ol 5ol 5ol 5on 5on 5on 5on 5op 5pa 5pa 5pa 5pa 5pa 8pp

Another deck I experimented with in pvp1 midseason to see if it was good enough for BL.  It wasn't.  However, it is rather creative and makes fairly effective use of wyrm, one of the most underused unupped cards in the game.

The time/light/aether stallbreaker stall 0-0 (not played)

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4sq 4ss 4su 5li 5li 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5m6 5m6 5m6 5m6 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rl 5rl 5rn 5rn 5ro 5ro 5rs 5rs 5s4 5s4 5se 5se 5se 5se 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 61o 61o 61o 61o 61q 61q 61q 61q 61q 61q 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 63a 63a 63a 63a 8pq

I built this later in the season, again in my hunt to beat the unholy trinity of grabbow/deck/SoP, but I was not confident enough to ever give it a try, and I didn't think that pvp1 results would give me enough information in this particular case.  I have no idea how it would have done, but I suspect that it would have bombed badly.  It does, however, look very sexy with all those rares :p

Light/aether stall 0-0 (not used)

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4sq 4su 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5lh 5li 5li 5li 5li 5li 5li 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5m6 5m6 5m6 5m6 5m6 5m6 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 61q 61q 61q 61q 61q 61q 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 61v 61v 62m 62m 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 8pq

I didn't use the time/light/aether stall above, in part because trio quanta balancing is very difficult, so I removed time and tried to do it that way; this is the result.  It might've done okay, but I don't think it would have done any better or worse than the death/light stall above.  Plus, I knew people would hate it, anyway :p  (not that that's ever stopped me, but I didn't think it would do very well anyway, so no sense annoying people and losing; that's a lose-lose situation)

time/gravity stall 0-0 (not played)

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4ss 55t 55t 563 568 568 56i 56i 56i 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rj 5rl 5rl 5rn 5ro 5ro 5ro 5rs 5rs 5s4 5s4 5se 5se 5se 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 8pl

This is deck #9001 in the attempt to beat the unholy trinity... never had enough confidence to try it, either.  This would have been an utter disaster had I been stupid enough to use it.

Season match record: 78-17 (order of players is in the order I played my first game with them, according to notes)

Spoiler for Hidden:

treebeard xiii: 9-1
Dm1321: 5-1
09113664593c: 8-2
S2xa55No: 2-3
Vangelios: 3-0
Afdarenty 2: 1-0
Marsu: 0-1
rem4life: 5-3
beefsupreme: 4-0
cnighthawx/lapizdragon: 1-0
theo1992: 1-0
The Last One/belligerence: 5-0
evolution359/shrink: 2-0
rascarcapac/rogerluc: 1-0
ryan666/roseriya: 1-0
victor_hrb: 1-0
drackokagebuyo/drake_xiv: 2-0
helldragon96/blaze: 1-0
dawn_to_dusk/DawnToDusk: 3-1
fippe94: 3-1
tommy/tommygunner: 3-0
rob77dp: 2-3
xeto17: 1-0
neuroleptics: 1-0
hellsanger69/Black Star: 1-0
Pella: 3-0
KeeperofDreams/keeps: 1-0
Atom_heart: 1-0
theboss1248: 3-1
trinitrotolu0l/chessboxing: 2-0
big cor: 1-0
kittychum/girl_g34: 1-0

all others: 0-0

Special thanks to:

Spoiler for Hidden:

The hosts:  Yay justaburd!  Yay cheesy!

Treebeard and 09113664593c: For being the only two players this season I got to play a full ten matches with.  (in previous seasons there were more I got to play a full ten with for whatever reason)

S2xaT5No, Marsu, rob77dp: For being the three people that I lost to more than I won.  That's got to be worth something... :p  (Interestingly, I had no ties against anyone in wins/losses this season, just a silly RNG thing this season, I guess)

S2xaT5N0 and Afdarenty: For creating decks that I plagiarized, even if I couldn't manage to use them as well as the original creators did.  They did, however, both help me to create my 'the real neptune' deck, amongst others, that was a success for me.

Everybody: For playing games with me!  I like games...

Zanzarino: For making games for me to play!  I like games...

The meta this season:

Spoiler for Hidden:

The two deck that stuck out to me this season that everyone seemed to be using were 1) some variant of the 60 card light mark "The Deck", and 2) various Shard of Patience decks, such as monowater squid, SoP novabow (lots of 1 cost creatures and water mark), and so on.  Thus, many of my later attempts to create decks and my choices of decks in various matches were often based on what decks I thought had a good chance against both of these.  Other than that, I didn't notice the prevalence of any one particular archetype or style.  I think part of this was that there were a lot of players in BL this season that I had never played before, in any league or tourney or event, and so they had their own style and way of doing things.  I think there was slightly more firestall and monotime than last season, but they weren't particularly prevalent.  Grabbow was used a lot, too, as it always is, but that's not a surprise to anyone.  I saw no shard golems at all until right near the end of the season, when I saw a few people all of a sudden decide to use them; it took me off guard a few times because of that.

Another thing I noticed was that I saw a lot more games that I won (or occasionally lost) because someone made a mistake in play.  In nearly all cases, one of the two players was using "the deck" and/or shard of patience.  I think that the reason for this is that "the deck" is one of the hardest decks to play or play against, and so it is only natural that most mistakes should happen in those cases.  I also saw several mistakes made with shard of patience, particularly against me when I was using "the deck".  I won several games because people removed their shard of patience too early, for example, and I was able to just sundial my way to a deckout win after that, or, sometimes, when they waited too long before rushing, and I was able to stabilize when I would have easily been killed earlier.  I'm sure I made my own share of mistakes, but I probably don't know it; after all, if I'd realized it at the time, I wouldn't have done it!

Mark Codes:

Spoiler for Hidden:

Right now, the three marks that I don't have are water, life, and gravity.  I'm already owed two tourney codes, and one I plan to use for mark of water, because in that tourney I got to ice bolt/shockwave two weapons, which is quite rare.  (I used almost exclusively a 'the deck' variant that day :p)  For the other, I plan to take a mark of life, for the mythical creatures tourney; my best deck that day was a disquake using elite cockatrice and minor phoenix, so the mark of life will represent the mythical beast that earned me the most success.

As that leaves just mark of gravity, that will be one of my league codes for sure, so that I'll have one of all twelve elements.  I'll use it to represent 'the deck', since one thing that people said to me a few times was that they weren't expecting my pulverizer in it; apparently that was something that nobody else was doing in their 'the deck' variants.

For the other league code... I am still undecided.  A fire mark for firestall/phoenixbolt would make sense, as they were 13-2 and 6-0, respectively.  Either an earth or water mark for The Real Neptune would also make sense.  I'd thought about a light mark to represent "The Deck", but the gravity mark will already be doing that, and that disgusting monstrosity doesn't deserve to be recognized twice :p  Earth or entropy in honour of disquake's success would also be a good choice, which gives two decks in favour of earth, and monoentropy would give another good reason to pick another entropy mark.  My first earned mark was an entropy mark for my first CL season, but because codes were late, the first mark I actually had was a mark of light from my first tourney win; either of those might be a good choice, just as a kind of recognition of the cycle of twelve elements being complete.  I'd also been thinking of a mark of light because, as far as I know, nobody in the world has more than one mark of light. (except maybe Zso_Zso, but I'm not sure what he did with his codes yet)  For all the other elements, I can think of at least one person who has multiple copies of that mark.

I might also hang onto the 13th code to see if version 1.4 of elements allows people to take mark of chroma.  I don't really have a loyalty to any one element, so that would be a really good one for me, and I'd probably work on getting a set of six of those if we're able to pick it in future versions of Elements.

What card I'd REALLY like to have instead of marks...

Spoiler for Hidden:

Zanz?  I heard you can make ANYTHING happen... can you make THIS happen?  Please?

[S2xaT5No]

One of the hardest and most unpredictable opponents to play against. Congratulations, you really deserve the 1st place!   

[BeefSupreme]

srsly dat Deck

y u do dis

best believe Imma be studyin' this up for next season

*shakes fist angrily*

[Vangelios]

no special thanks for me  we had great matches, all 2-1 to you, including 1 match that you won by 1 HP
Nice work as usual and congratulations on your well deserved victory.

[dragonsdemesne]

You got special thanks last season when I stole the death/light stall from you, Vang   I think I do remember that 1hp win now that you mention it; I didn't keep track of whether my matches were 2-0 or 2-1 or 0-2 or 1-2, so I wasn't aware all of ours were 2-1.  I know there was one match where I was using that earth/water SoP stall, and I won by 1hp against a fire phoenix deck that was one of the closest games of Elements I have ever played; was that between us?  I can't recall who my opponent was, but man that game was epic, full of really good plays on both sides turning the tide several times, and counting every last hp and quanta.

I've got a few ideas for new decks next season already... and there's a few I'll probably tweak somewhat from this season, like the grabbow and probably 'the deck' as well.

Seeing as there was no choice for a mint condition alpha artist-signed Black Lotus on the reward code page, I ended up going with a gravity mark and a water mark, and the two tourney codes I'm owed I'll use for mark of life (to have all 12) and something else to be determined.  (It'll most likely be one of fire, light, earth, entropy, or time, not that that narrows it down too much)

[treebeard xiii]

damn you dragons why you post more versions of the deck the was my most hated deck all season cost me tonnes of points it needs to be banished to the depths of hell never to be seen again, not glorified in a deck compilation thread 

[dragonsdemesne]

Sorry Treebeard    I know it's frustrating to play against the deck, but one reason I posted the decks is the hopes that people will be able to find counters to them and change the meta from this season.  Also, I'd like to point out that I had several decks with a higher win rate than 'the deck' this season.  (last season it was my top deck, but people seem to have adapted to it)  In fact, it had within 1% of the win rate of a basic monoentropy for me, for instance.

[treebeard xiii]

Sorry Treebeard    I know it's frustrating to play against the deck, but one reason I posted the decks is the hopes that people will be able to find counters to them and change the meta from this season.  Also, I'd like to point out that I had several decks with a higher win rate than 'the deck' this season.  (last season it was my top deck, but people seem to have adapted to it)  In fact, it had within 1% of the win rate of a basic monoentropy for me, for instance.

people adapted by also using the deck i faceed maybe 7 versions of the thing all because it got posted at the end of last season

[BeefSupreme]

Sorry Treebeard    I know it's frustrating to play against the deck, but one reason I posted the decks is the hopes that people will be able to find counters to them and change the meta from this season.  Also, I'd like to point out that I had several decks with a higher win rate than 'the deck' this season.  (last season it was my top deck, but people seem to have adapted to it)  In fact, it had within 1% of the win rate of a basic monoentropy for me, for instance.

people adapted by also using the deck i faceed maybe 7 versions of the thing all because it got posted at the end of last season

Boo. Hoo.
Ever heard of a stallbreaker?

[treebeard xiii]

Sorry Treebeard    I know it's frustrating to play against the deck, but one reason I posted the decks is the hopes that people will be able to find counters to them and change the meta from this season.  Also, I'd like to point out that I had several decks with a higher win rate than 'the deck' this season.  (last season it was my top deck, but people seem to have adapted to it)  In fact, it had within 1% of the win rate of a basic monoentropy for me, for instance.

people adapted by also using the deck i faceed maybe 7 versions of the thing all because it got posted at the end of last season

Boo. Hoo.
Ever heard of a stallbreaker?

ever heard of an unbreakable stall you used it enough i had a couple of stallbreaks unfortunately the deck is nigh on impossible to stall break otherwise you wouldn't have used it would you even dragons the decks designeer struggled to stop it half the time so don't give me have you ever heard of a stallbreak.

[dragonsdemesne]

Some of the best cards against it were earthquake, trident, and shard of patience.  Decks using those did quite well against 'the deck'.  Monotime also did quite well against it, because pharaohs are harder to kill with 9hp, and if you don't stop them early, they'll get a huge scarab swarm out and just overwhelm everything the deck can do.  If you're playing shardless, firestall should be able to OTK the deck pretty much every time.  Looking at the notes for this season, monofire also did well against the deck for some reason, although I couldn't tell you why.

[Chapuz]

Congrats, dragons, for your deserved trophy.

If you played more with the Catatitans, I'm sure you would have increased your win rate for that deck. In my last BL it gave me many 5-7 ttw games with just 6 fw, 4 catas, 6 titans and 14 pillars.