Guest posts by Malduk

13

Art Class / Re: Lesson 3: Back to Basics

« on: January 08, 2011, 04:53:22 pm »

I have to say this one was hard for me to draw, as I made tons of mistakes while drawing it. Had to erase several times due to bad proportions, and skeleton didnt help either. Main problem is that I didnt have a model to look at while drawing, and I guess I'm still not that comfortable with drawing anatomy in whatever pose from my head.
The problem I have with skeleton is that with lines and circles, proportions look good to me, until I start adding muscle groups. I dont know if I'm missing something, or I just need more practice. I actually finished this by doing fast skeleton-sketch that looked terrible, and then doing it again, by looking at mistakes I did in the first try. Fixing mistakes would be so much easier by using photoshop, than it is on the paper.
Anyway, one thing I didnt fix in this sketch is its left leg. That one should be "bigger" as its more towards to viewer. The way I drew it, it looks like its more to the back (I dont know how to explain this better lol).
Also, I guess I'm just bad at drawing heads, especially details on the head.

14

Trial Archive / Re: Phase 1 - Proving of Worthiness

« on: January 08, 2011, 04:31:07 pm »

Making it a challenge is good, but I agree with what QuantumT pointed out: banning cards makes less optimal decks, making for a less optimal start on an AI5 ttw study (which some people seem interested in). You can argue the same about last trials' Phase One deckbuilding challenge, which was to make an anti-FG deck that could beat a good portion of the False Gods with the deck being at least 50% of a given element, but I think there were a lot more interesting/useful things coming out of that one as opposed to what we'll see from this one. Plus, the deckbuilding rules on the last trials are less restricting than this one.

Honestly, there's absolutely nothing wrong with suboptimal decks for AI5. People should learn to have fun on the game. Playing AI5 with whatever deck is already not an "optimal" gameplay if you're in for the grind, so the whole AI5 ttw study project seems pretty pointless to me. Its like saying "best way to achieve results that are not the best is this".
Maybe I'm looking at this whole thing the wrong way, but I'd rather see some fun and somewhat different decks, than decks made for grind.

15

Trial Archive / Re: Phase 1 - Proving of Worthiness

« on: January 08, 2011, 02:22:07 am »

Its supposed to be some kind of a challenge. Honestly, half bloods suck, and are beatable by nearly anything. We dont even have to log the win rate for the decks.
Also, everyone is running against players from their own element. It doesnt matter if "only entropy is left with perma control". I, as a challenger, dont give a crap if entropy got it easier or not, as long as I'm on the same playing field with my fellow death lovers. I'm perfectly fine with having bans, though I would have picked them differently.

EDIT: kobis, turns to win are only calculated on wins. And its about turns, not win %.

16

Trial of Death / Re: 3rd Trials - Phase 1 - Proving of Worthiness

« on: January 08, 2011, 02:09:40 am »

OPTION I
Elements the Game
Fighting Half Bloods - Suckers! (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,19036.0.html)

EDIT:

I'm sorry to say, but I'll have to withdraw from Trials. I'll have to travel a lot for the next few weeks, and I doubt I'll have enough spare time to devote to trials. My girlfriend is a violin player, and she has series of concerts in a region and I finally decided to tag along, and maybe seal a business deal or two on those fancy dinners after concerts. 
I will carry a laptop with me, and follow up whats going on here when I get connection, so good luck to all participants!

17

Archived Decks / Re: PurpleFrost! (Death Trial Entry: HB killer)

« on: January 07, 2011, 08:00:44 pm »

Only AFTER I finished this, I saw Permafrost is banned. Back to the drawing board. 

18

Archived Decks / Suckers! (Death Trial Entry: HB killer)

« on: January 07, 2011, 07:44:24 pm »

Since this assignment is made for the community, I'd like to say first that I wouldnt advise farming HBs with anything that doesnt give fast EMs, or 500HP EMs.

SUCKERS! v.1

by Malduk

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

6rn 6rn 6rn 6rn 6rn 710 710 710 713 713 713 71a 71a 71e 71e 72i 72i 72i 72i 72i 72i 72i 7t7 7t7 7t7 7t7 7t8 7t8 7ta 7ta 8pt

Turns to win	12,55
Wins	40
Losses	6
Win ratio	87%
EMs	7

List of per game turns to win:
14
10
14
11
15
14
14
20
10
11
9
17
12
loss
10
12
11
16
loss
10
15
17
19
15
11
20
14
13
10
loss
11
22
12
13
loss
10
16
22
loss
13
loss
19


I have to say that I love upgraded Suckers with Eclipse. I made this deck to have fun with it, not to get the optimal win rate per time invested ratio. And Suckers are really underused card. I made a "v.1" mark next to the title as I'm hoping to make few more decks with the same theme (not part of the Trials).
Now, just check the awesomeness that Eclipse brings in this / duo, apart from obvious Deathstalker buff:
Flesh Recluse - 8|4 creature for 3 quanta
Bloodsucker - 5|2 creature for 2 quanta
EPIC! My favorite tiny bastards.
Downside of the combo is that you need couple of Eclipse cards to get needed redundancy, but only ever can enjoy buffs from one card. Thats what I personally always disliked in this duo.

Anyway, there's nothing much to say about the deck apart from saying again how simply epic it is to get your 3 quanta 8|4 Recluse out. Its half spider, half dragon, half man, half bear, half pig.
Deck is rounded and plays easily. Dies to shield chain / CC obviously. Fire and Earth HBs were giving me most troubles; and actually ANY earth duo prolongs the fight too much.
Can it work unupped? No, there's a whole world of difference between upgraded and unupgraded Spiders and Suckers.
Stalkers are there to make a better use of Eclipse and provide you with poison damage that will make sure you win the fight even after CC or shield(s).

*Below is the first deck that doesnt fit the rules as it has a Permafrost. Keeping it alive as I like it; its a strong solid deck.

PurpleFrost

by Malduk

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

6rn 6rn 6rn 6rn 6rn 6rn 718 718 718 718 718 718 71a 71a 72i 72i 72i 72i 72i 72i 72i 72i 72i 7gl 7gl 7gp 7gp 7gr 7gr 7gr 8pp

This deck preformed outstandingly well. I call BS on its stats even though I was the one testing it 

Turns to win	13,35
Wins	40
Losses	4
Win ratio	90,9%
EMs	9

Interesting Info:
- won 5 upped cards from those 40 wins
- won against Destiny and Obliterator by misclicking on FGs instead of HBs

Fast Obliterator win, didnt even draw the Permafrost or Arsenic.


List of turns to win per game:
15
15
13
16
19
loss
11
16
11
19
16
15
18
11
12
12
20
15
loss
14
loss
11
17
14
12
11
18
15
16
13
14
13
13
18
18
13
loss
12
15
23


About the deck:
Every deck when faced against 200HP will need some time to chew it through. This makes poison building strat (Physalia+Arsenic) even better than when against 100HP opponents, as you actually have time to build that poison. I had games that were won by ONLY Arsenic as damage dealer.

Permafrost and Squids are there to, obviously, lock the whole board, which is surprisingly easy to do against Half Bloods. If against CC heavy HB, dont even bother playing creatures. He will have troubles playing cards from his hand and will have to draw 1 per turn and hopefully even discard cards (this strat works against FGs too if you know when and against who to use it).

I tend to play SoGs AFTER I get quanta for Permafrost. Permafrost+SoG combo is completely broken in this game. You can make anything work with those in the deck. Saying that, complete lock of the board with a help of SoGs, makes EMs possible, which is usually not easy with poison decks as poison damage gets applied after the first attacker.

Now about the stats I gathered... We had to get 40 wins against HBs. Honestly, that stat sample is way too small when there are 144 different half bloods out there. I faced the same half bloods several times too.
However, relatively high win rate is expected with this deck. Poison is super hard to fight (I also never lost against any Water HB), and even if everything gets destroyed/killed on your side of the board, poison will get you that win.
I lost to fire duo twice, nuking all my permanents and rushing me, and entropy duo twice (Discord is a pain).
You can get EMs in two ways: 1) full lock of the board, 2) getting lucky with Arsenic hit after SoGs heal. I say getting lucky, as poison damage is harder to plan ahead than physical damage. It can be done though if you want to turn on your brain cells while playing.

19

General Discussion / Re: Ultimate Deck Building Toolset (v 1.0)

« on: January 07, 2011, 07:08:07 pm »

I get how it works and what you're saying. I just dont find it useful. Or useful enough to actually use it. I started writing a long post about why guessing one draw that will actually happen in minority of your games is not that useful, but I dropped it as I think you understand my point.
About having quanta to play it, that is not really a big issue in deckbuilding. Most players have a good feeling about their quanta usage, and simple tests against AI3 can give you faster answers. And you cant really tweak the deck to "perfect quanta production to quanta usage ratio" as your quanta production relies on draws. And by draws, I dont mean order of draws, but by probability to draw what you need in first 8 cards.

Finally, when games are decided in several turns, no one cares what will be drawn from there till the last card, as the game is already over, so deckbuilding goal should be to build deck that has a fast enough setup, not the deck that has good draws from turn 15 to turn 23.

20

General Discussion / Re: Ultimate Deck Building Toolset (v 1.0)

« on: January 07, 2011, 01:41:58 pm »

Well... props for the huge amount of work.

I'd love to say that I love it, but actual probabilities mean more than all the numbers and graphs from that tool. Possible order of cards from the deck is not nearly as useful info as draw chance of your needed card. With evenly distributed rainbows, DOG is useless. With redundant decks like 18-6-6 deck, you really dont need any tool.

21

Trial Archive / Re: Phase 1 - Proving of Worthiness

« on: January 07, 2011, 01:15:29 pm »

I'm guessing upgraded cards are allowed for option 1. Do we do the tests on main account or trainer?
Also, why forbid decking a HB? Without Eternity, Miracle and perma control, it wont be easy anyway.

22

Art Class / Re: Lesson 3: Back to Basics

« on: January 06, 2011, 03:54:08 pm »

Here I am. Taking photos of the drawings is a serious pain. I never get the centered photo and the image is always slightly skewed on one side. 

Anyway, fast sketch 5 or so minutes. Didnt want to spend time shading or "fixing" it, as it would likely hide skeleton. I tried to give the creature body of a four legged predator (say a cougar). Not entirely happy with the result. Seems too thin (in waist mostly).

23

Trial of Death / Re: 3rd Trials - Signing up

« on: December 31, 2010, 02:02:34 pm »

Signing up from a gas station in the middle of nowhere. Cant load elements atm, but IIRC, score was 180k+.

24

Forum News and Announcements / Re: Trials are on!

« on: December 31, 2010, 12:52:36 pm »

These 5 days between Christmas and a New Year, are the worst possible times in a whole year you can pick to do anything on first come, first served basis.