Guest posts by Daxx

1177

General Discussion / Where is the challenge?

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:37 pm »

no offense   if you could see what you type in the same way   

If you could see what you type in the way I do, you might run screaming back to the nearest school. 8)

In other news, has anyone been able to generate a list of decktypes from the current t50? I think it would be quite interesting to see how many of them are god-farming and how many are set up for PVP.

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Deck Help / Speed deck for farming AI

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:37 pm »

I have this deck floating around - it predates Scaredgirl's by some way (and the Sundial/Bonewall deck tech), but is built for PVP whereas hers which is built for the slightly longer haul against the Gods. I think it does a decent job at being a speedy rainbow deck, if such a thing exists.

Mark of Time
11 Quantum Tower

6 Nova
4 Improved Steal
1 Eternity

1 Werewolf
1 Forest Spirit    
1 Lava Golem    
1 Mind Flayer    
1 Bloodsucker    
1 Graviton Firemaster    
1 Elite Graboid    
1 Elite Queen

This is what Scaredgirl was talking about in using as many elements as possible. Those creatures are from a swathe of different elements, and their activated abilities for the most part are spread out too (and, importantly for a speed deck, different to their own type). It's also cut down to 30 cards; whilst you might not want to do that regularly with a Rainbow deck with this one it's important for getting everything out as quickly as possible. I would be tempted to run an Electrum Hourglass in there, but I'm not sure what I would remove and the deck is already strained for Time. It could also do with a little bit more creature control, but it usually outruns anything short of a mono-fire deck anyway.

EDIT: But yes, to echo Scaredgirl's sentiments: your deck isn't very good. It isn't anywhere near as fast as a mono-fire deck, it won't be getting many masteries (so it's not great for grinding), it falls over and dies to anything with decent creature control, and it isn't anywhere near a rainbow deck in terms of flexibility.

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Random, Normal and Elder / List of decks

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:36 pm »

Best place for that would be on the wiki.

http://elementsthegame.wikia.com/wiki/Level_3 (http://elementsthegame.wikia.com/wiki/Level_3)

Modelling it on the False Gods (http://elementsthegame.wikia.com/wiki/False_Gods) page might be a good idea; bear in mind it's impossible to put together comprehensive decklists.

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General Discussion / Things that make Rainbow decks overpowered, solutions.

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:36 pm »

Rainbow wasn't very popular before the upgrade system. Care to explain that little factoid?

Very simple. Card casting costs, cost/power ratios and Towers vs Pillars. As any CCG player will tell you, tempo (and mana curves) are important factors in top-level decks in this type of game. Rainbow decks are more viable after the upgrade system than they were beforehand because:

• Many upgraded cards cost less to play. This is an important consideration when otherwise you might disregard a card because it requires too many of the same quantum type.
• Some cards become more powerful for the same cost. This makes them more attractive, and worth splashing for.
• Finally, quantum towers provide extra quanta, and they provide them now. This means you have an extra turn's headstart on your mana curve.

This suggests that introducing more cards with a higher cost that are worth playing will make mono-decks more attractive, since those cards might be powerful but only worth taking if you can afford to play them. Even packing novas and supernovas, a costly card is going to be tricky to cast early enough to make a difference. Lots of different cards with low costs means that Rainbow decks get more fodder.

As for "rainbow decks are overpowered wah wah wah", my personal response is that a) the game is not finished, and it's possible that the design has a long way to go, and b) the meta-game exists; that is, anti-rainbow deck tech will improve as more people play rainbow and the game community matures.

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General Discussion / Things that make Rainbow decks overpowered, solutions.

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:09:36 pm »

Yeah, sundials are a bit of a bitch. I still think there's a place for them in the game, but they do cause problems considering how cheap they are to play (and the Hasten ability).

As a side note, I don't understand why a card game should be compared to chess. A card game, even poker, is most of the times won if you have the right cards at the right time, uncertainness if your opponent has the card to counter may come into play as well. There is no uncertainness on a chess board, all your "cards" are there from the beginning, and you can see all of the "cards" your oppenent.

This is belated, and may have been explained before, but I believe the point being made was that the poster preferred less hidden information. Chess has no hidden information compared to poker which is predicated upon it, and therefore has less uncertainty and randomness, and a greater impact of skill over luck.

Incidentally, this is why many of the best decks try to reduce their size to the minimum possible, so as to improve the odds of drawing your best cards, and to reduce the probability of bad draws. Where there is less randomness, your skill in deck design and play is more important.

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Forum Archive / AI issue in top 50 decks.

« on: December 15, 2009, 04:10:27 pm »

The AI has one counter-benefit when it comes to rainbow decks. The quantum tower bug means that they have far more quanta than they should.

But I guess people don't design decks (other than rare farms) based on how the AI will play them in t50. It's just a failing of the AI.

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Forum Archive / How to make the best possible rare farm deck

« on: December 15, 2009, 04:10:20 pm »

Forgive me if I'm naive, but how do you win with a deck like this, and against who? 

Can you give examples?

The idea isn't to win with this deck. You play with your regular deck when playing, and set the rare farm as a deck before registering your high score and logging off. Then, if you are in the t50, the rare farm will be the deck people fight against, because the database calls your most recent deck.

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Forum Archive / Best Unupgraded deck for speed grinding t50?

« on: December 15, 2009, 04:10:19 pm »

Unupgraded poison/freeze does NOT work. I repeat, it does NOT work. I tried it in the trainer, and it sucked so much, I only won about 1 fight out of 4.

I find I'm winning about half, actually, against t50. Having said that, I do have an upped Arsenic which helps. To be fair, if you're t50 grinding, losing to everything except the rare farms isn't a problem because the point is not to get electrum, it's to win rares.

EDIT: With a couple of Physalias and a bit more practice, I'm winning a good 80%+. Losses tend to be either against mono-fire, or when a Rainbow deck establishes board control a lot faster than normal.

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Forum Archive / Best Unupgraded deck for speed grinding t50?

« on: December 15, 2009, 04:10:19 pm »

Unupgraded poison isn't hugely fast, I find. YMMV, of course. I'd stick with the fire lance deck until you can at least upgrade an Arsenic or two.

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Forum Archive / How to make the best possible rare farm deck

« on: December 15, 2009, 04:10:19 pm »

Thanks Chris. Hopefully this will become common practice.