My personal opinion on the 'weakest' aspects of each element:
Aether (
): The element itself is
very cool (
unlike the Master who thinks he is j/k
), and the cards themselves represent a good element of 'immortality' and being neigh untouchable. The cards that they have are beautifully used in various decks, but it's still not the best when it comes to card count (quantity - ONLY 10 CARDS WITHOUT RARES?!) or overall creature/permanent versatility (quality).
Darkness (
): It has a good mix of 'leeching' + taking from your opponent, and the element would have been my favorite had
not existed. I can't really think of its flaws, as it has varied creatures (life stealers,
quanta stealers, a massive dragon, and two distinct poisoners (nymph included), and a couple of good permanents (although it does need another new shield).
Death (
): Bone Wall is overpowered, and free skeletons upon creature death is a godsend. Poisons are a pain to deal with too. It has really good synergy with a lot of cards, and Mummy is a personal favorite, if I can make a good
/
deck properly. I just don't like the theme of the element itself.
Earth (
): Permanent & health protecting/destroying (Quicksand, Pulvy, Stone Skin, Plate Armor, etc.) + crazy invulnerable creatures (Shriekers, Antlions, etc.) are anything but weak. Protect Artifact is the only card in the game to stop permanent destruction, which makes this element an even tougher cookie. It has an abundance of cards/synergies also.
Entropy (
): Luck works. Most of the time. I hate the Chaos Power effects at times, and Supernova spam is absurd. Butterfly Effect also makes this element pretty tough as well, and Fallen Druids are a favorite.
Fire (
): Frail, but too much damn creature/permanent control. Explosion + Rain of Fire + Fire lance + Farenheit = if you have enough fire quanta, the opponent is toast. I hate this element because of its stupid speed sometimes
, and all the unique ways (Immolation, Ash Eater, Elite FFQ, etc.) to generate fire quanta to get those creatures down quickly.
Gravity (
): Otyugh + Momentum = near unstoppable killing machine. Black Hole and Titan just make it worse to deal with it. It's similar to Darkness in regards to the 'taking' things from others for one's own benefit, but I think it needs more cards to extend that concept further. I'm surprised people haven't voted 'bad' for this one though - I guess the Otyugh really owns everything.
Life (
): Strong healing + Creature spam. I get it.
Light (
): I was about to vote for this one, but RoL + Hope spam is stupidly overpowered unless the other guy has a Rain of Fire, Thunderstorm, of Plague ready to bust out (or even Flooding).
-23 damage from an invincible shield? Ugh. Aside from that one trick pony and Miracle, Light needs a major boost in something sooner of later.
Time (
): THE BEST ELEMENT EVER. Just saying.
Water (
): The creatures are just as frail as fire, but they're less offensive and more utility based (Chrysaora for poison, flayers for lobotomizing, the legendary squid for freezing). Good control, but I can't seem to get the hang of playing cards from this element, since it feels too slow at times.
...which leads up to,
Air ( 
) the worst: There's something really disappointing with this element, and I want to say it's not just because of the creatures, or the permanents, or the spells... it's ALL of it. I don't see many people trying to mix up this element into their decks (aside from FFQ and Animate Weapon; who uses Thunderstorm, the regular Firefly, or the Wyrm nowadays?). Wyrms were nice with TU for a while, but after that initial damage shock, any other element can take it out fairly quickly. The only redeeming factor in my opinion from this deck are sadly, the rares - Owl's Eye provides decent control (but they're screwed it the bow gets broken), and the Air Nymph can spawn 5 little Alchemy spell potions (Unstable Gas) to send a player to death, but it'll fail against a Jade Shield or good healing/permanent destruction. FFQ is also everywhere, but without
, it's useless. Even the Fog Shield can't compare to Dusk Mantle and is just a ripoff minus the cost.
I guess the thing that annoys me the most about Air is that it just
feels weak. Not because of some Avatar airbending pacifist kind of feeling, but when I look at the element as a whole, it's not inspiring. It's not deadly. It's not controlling, destructive, or really 'quick'. It's just there.
Good thing I'm working on a new card idea for this one...
EDIT:
...That's because if [the] Hourglass is the heart of a time deck, an Eternity is the brain.
Can I quote you Xinef? Because that, by far, is probably the best way to describe the two most valued
cards hands down.
Yay for time!!
