I agree with much what is being said. I think a base reward is fine, but players would find more decks appealing if they were rewarded for accomplishing certain feats during the course of the duel.
Recently, I went back to play the Yu-Gi-Oh! 2005 GBA game and was a little disappointed to remember how lack-luster duel point attainment was. (you paid for cards and packs with duel points [DP]). I remembered then that one of the games with the most satisfying DP attainment strategy was Yu-Gi-Oh! 2006. On top of base rewards for the difficulty of the deck you faced, there were all sorts of bonuses to go for, which only certain deck archetypes were capable of achieving. However, nearly all deck types were rewarded in a way that didn't make you feel like "shooting yourself in the foot for using the deck you actually enjoy playing" (loose quote from ratcharmer).
Total Damage Bonus: Gain the amount of damage you did in battle (times some coefficient like .1) as bonus reward. This rewards the players for the extra time spent when facing decks with strong healing.
Battle Damage only Bonus: If you win by strictly causing damage to opponent with monsters' attacks, bonus reward of some amount or multiplier.
Effect Damage only Bonus: If you win by strictly causing damage to opponent with monsters' effects or spells, bonus reward of some amount or multiplier. (In EtG, Poison only decks)
Max Attack Bonus: *Have the highest attack of an attacking monster. *Minimum attack requirement (could be 20 for EtG). Gain the attack of that monster (times some coefficient) as reward :electrum.
Max Damage Bonus...
Destroy in Battle Bonus...
No monsters bonus...
No spells bonus...
Opponent turn finish bonus: Get rewarded for winning when it's your opponent's turn. (Always fun)
No Damage bonus...
Exactly 0 HP bonus...
+ Many more
For a full list of bonuses and their particular calculations in the game: http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Yu-Gi-Oh!_Ultimate_Masters:_World_Championship_2006:_Duelist_Points_and_Duel_Bonuses
^ I hope linking like this isn't against the forum rules... let me know.
Anyways, aiming for super powering one monster for a big bonus or restricting yourself to no PC for rewards actually worth the hassle doesn't seem like a bad idea. Plus, it was always a lot of fun reading the "tab" as it added up your bonus score and you got a receipt for that duel's achievements.
- Be sure to include "catch all" categories like long game etc, we don't want someone screwed just because no one thought to add a reward for how their deck works
- Be careful not to buff decks that are already top-tier grinders--many bonuses you list ("Battle Damage Only", "No Spells") would apply to rush decks more often than stall.
- I'm not sure how possible it would be to code many of these. Right now Elements doesn't keep track of cards you played last turn etc so adding some of these to the game would take major code revisions.
I understand the apprehension, but the bonuses I was listing off were just examples from another card game. Many don't apply or simply don't work mechanically for Elements (like bonuses for "Number of Ritual Summons", "Number of Fusion Summons", or "Number of Tribute Summons"). The idea behind them is what made them great: offering an increased reward for harder or more strategic play styles to increase their viability. In Yu-Gi-Oh!, summoning monsters increases in difficulty like so: normal summon, tribute summon, fusion summon, ritual summon. As such, the bonuses for each increase like this: 0, 80, 150, 300.
Completely my personal opinion, but it doesn't sit well with me to put aside ideas just because they would be difficult to code or implement--at least not right off the bat. Ideas shouldn't be limited by the difficulty of the project. If afterwards, it is found that there are technical limitations, then that's a totally logical reason to go no further.
I also don't expect any more from Elements than what is here already. If another update comes, then super duper awesome. If not, that's fine too. From this, I would only expect sweeping changes like these to be considered for oetg or Cygnia. Else, all of this would be simple speculation.
Reminder: These are my personal opinions.