Deck Ideas

[kev]

Our initial vault will be composed of two parts: decks, and cards we'll use when tweaking those decks.  Teams with a poor initial vault are doomed.

It's absolutely critical we get together our best decks ASAP so we can begin to build our vault.

Please use this thread to brainstorm deck ideas.  Test them if you can, and post your thoughts on where decks run into problems, etc.  This thread is about brainstorming creativity as well as give and take.  Comment on other people's decks and provide tweaks to address potential problems.  Discuss against which opponents a deck may be appropriate.  Also, our starting vault is IMMENSE and we only get 24 immos and six novas.  Please ensure some of the decks listed here use some... less popular cards.  And remember to include some Master decks which can use six upped cards.

Have fun with it.

I'll get us started.  The War1 vault was built around these decks:

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[Acsabi44]

ty.
I already checked the War#1 fire section, and began testing those decks (fractal phoenix owns btw).
I have a vague idea for a Masters deck- fractal Brimstone eaters, with Farenheit as a badass kill condition. It is versatile cause it can either play the rush or the stall, depending on the actual matchup. Will post a decklist later.

[Acsabi44]

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Ok here is teh list that I am content with enough to post. The strategy is simple- play control with your card pool, while fractaling BEs ike there's no tomorrow.  BE rush and Farenheit will take care of the opponents.
- The deck is surprisingly fast, with a ttw around 10 (which is fast for a control deck)
- The deck can attack from  multiple angles (creature rush or farenheit)
- is't vulnerable against mass CC, which can be played around by keeping one BE in your hand all the time. Still, it's the deck's biggest weakness.
- Eternity is your archenemy as you don't want to draw a BE over and over again
- It did a 29-2 vs AI3 (one loss vas a ridiculous game where I didn't draw a single BE while the other was against entropy where I coulldn't draw an answer to a maxwelldemon)
- I'm thinking of replacing a Farenheit with a pillar, fractal or CC card as most of the time the BE rush is enough and the farenheit is just a plan B

[kev]

Now that the auction is over, I can bring clarity using specific numbers to the vault creation effort I described in my opening post.  Hyroen tells me we have 434 cards total.  We need to settle on our best 12-13 deck ideas.  If we create twelve 30-card decks, we know 360/434 of our vault.  We can then use the remaining 74 for:

opportunistic cards (ie purify, holy light, etc)tweak cards (ie extra ragepots, deflags, etc)replacement cards in case of loss (ie if we lose all nine matches round 1 and all nine decks had 6+ fire pillars, we can convert 53/74 surplus cards into fire pillars and voila, we're back to the 12 decks in which we have the most faith.

If we create thirteen 30-card decks, we have 390/434 used, and 44 surplus.  44 is a small number, but we'll be getting some cards from salvage that we can use for one of the three purposes I outline above.  We also need to stay cognizant of our limits: our initial vault can have no more than 24 copies of a fire card, 12 copies of a non-fire card.

Incidentally, the ability to transmute cards into pillars/pends of your element helps other elements a lot more than it helps us.  Too bad we can't transmute cards into immolations. 

Lava recommended I post my trials decks for our consideration.  The decks I created for use against Antagon are almost fully upped and therefore inappropriate, but I used these against Dragoon:

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While I'm at it here's some more deck ideas I've been messing around with, but haven't really been tested:

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So let's fill this thread with badass ideas and select the best 12-13.  The clock's ticking.

[Acsabi44]

I'd like to add that if you have an idea, but don't have the time to test it, or your idea is too vague and you don't know how to develop it into a deck, post here nevertheless. Maybe some of us can come up with a working deck based on your ideas.

That said, that would be wonderful if someone could come up with someting based on the following:
 I'm thinking of an air/fire stall- deck.

- Shockwaves OE-s and Ragpots for CC (OEs is a must)
- Unstable Gas for main damage (5 of them atleast)
- Wings or Fireshields for defense
- no creatures
- Fog Shield? Thunderstorm? RoR? Firebolt?
- Also I cannot seem to get the numbers right.

Dunno if this is a viable idea but I'll post some other decks later nevertheless.

[Acsabi44]

mono  Farenheit/Bolt deck:

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[catalyzeme]

If I were playing against Fire, the biggest thing I would be worried about would be having plenty of CC. Fire Pendulums should make it much easier than it used to be to make a duo while maintaining 50% fire cards. Obviously there were no Pendulum decks in the last war, so maybe we could come up with a few of those?

This was a quick and dirty deck that would need a lot of work, but I thought I would throw it out there to see if anyone could actually make anything of it:

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I personally was thinking that Phoenixes would be useful since they can absorb some CC, but they are expensive. I put the Phoenixes in for damage, although in the war, a 32 card deck could probably be built to deck out the opponent. Especially if they only have the vault for 30 card decks. I'm not sure. This deck might be terrible. I'll work on more, though


EDIT: Also, anyone got a good steam machine duo? Rage Potions + Freezes + Steam Machines, maybe? Maybe deflags too? I'm not sure.

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[Acsabi44]

Yeah the CC problem worries me too. I'll try to come up with something. (my first guess was an Earth duo w shriekers/platearmors, but It seems a bit inconsistent at first glance)

Meanwhile, heres one that we can use if expecting serious usage of shields, but cannot pack every deck with deflags. In a deck like this, the Momentums basically double as a deflag:

EDITED: -2 Grav Pendulum, +2 Fire Pendulum, so the deck is now 50% Fire.

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catalyzeme, I like your entropy duo, but are Nymphs allowed? 
Discord is badass, and I'd add some RoF. Anyways I'll continue brewing tomorrow.

G'night eveybody.

[Hyroen]

I have a feeling people will be naively expecting me to be using Unstable Gases, with a natural fusion of my fanaticism of Air and my respect and dedication to Fire.

I'd place a bet that Life and Light will be throwing in their reflecting shields at me. Let them waste their space and quanta with that.

Just throwing in what I think.

[catalyzeme]

Acsabi, I don't think your gravity duo deck is legal. I think we need 50% fire. Probably it's a little heavy on growth creatures for a deck with no defense (its basically a rush with slow rushers) so maybe sub the Fire Eaters for some more Fire cards? Although I'm not sure Fire Spirits would be the best either. That's a slow deck with no defense. I think it would need some beefier fire creatures to be viable.

I know we've got some great deckbuilders on the team that can help us out

[majofa]

I went through all the elements and found the cards that could give us the most trouble.
We can hopefully use this to narrow down the cards we need to counter these, so we could possible use the same cards in different situations. Thus not having to waste as much space in our vault.
If I missed any let me know and I'll add them.
(some of it may seem redundant or obvious, but I figured this could help speed up the process a little)

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Entropy
Maxwell's D - Fire creatures can easily be taken out by this card.
Recommended counter: Fire Bolt, CC

Dissipation Shield - Shouldn't cause too much of a problem for Fire. Rush would be to fast (usually) and Fire Bolt decks wouldn't be affected at all. The only real problem could be if it came out late and held off the damage just long enough.
Recommended counter: Deflagration, Fire Bolt

Discord - Immolation shouldn't have any trouble against this card. Fractal Dragon and Fire Bolt decks could be slowed by this card.
Recommended counter: Deflagration

Antimatter - Immolation counters this card very well. Just be sure you don't run out of them. Steam Machine works well against Purple Nymphs if anyone plays them.
Recommended counter: Immolation, (to a lesser extent) Steam Machine

Death
Bonewall - This card is always a pain when you don't have a lot of creatures on the board. It's expensive to put out, at a cost of 7, but in a nearly mono-Death deck; you might have to get through several of them before you can start doing some serious damage. It can also prevent Rain of Fire and Immolation from being played. Fire Bolt decks could care less about this Shield.
Recommended counter: Fractal, Momentum, Fire Bolt

Gravity
Otyugh - The self-proclaimed muncher of hopes and dreams. I doubt this little guy will see much play outside of the Gravity camp. With Quintessence though, he could quickly become a problem with Fire's low health creatures. Fire Bolt decks will starve him.
Recommended counter: Fire Bolt, Fire Shield

Black Hole - Also an easy card to counter. If we suspect an opponent might play this card we can just not play Immolation. Granted it still wouldn't hurt that much, but it could give the opponent just enough life to survive for the win.
Recommended counter: [Don't play Immolation.]

Earth
Enchant Artifact - Not much can be done to prevent this card from being played. That being said, it could only really become a problem when combined with another permanent from this list.
Recommended counter: Destroy the permanent before they protect it.

Earthquake - Most other elements could find a problem with this card, but not fire. Because you can't Earthquake an Immolation. Fire Bolts would probably have some issues with no Pillars/Pendulums.
Recommended counter: Immolation, Enchant Artifact.

Basilisk Blood - Immolation is a perfect counter to this card. Fractal can spam more creatures that can be Basilisk Blooded. Fire Bolt decks aren't afraid of this card at all. If you're using an Immolation deck and you suspect this card might be played, save them it you can.
Recommended counter: Immolation

Life
Emerald Shield - Can completely shut down a Fire Bolt deck. However, a Fire Bolt deck can play an Emerald/Reflective Shield and 'bounce' the spell off himself to hit the opponent.
Recommended counter: Emerald Shield, Reflective Shield

Fire
Rain of Fire - With all Fire creatures being low in health, this card can really hurt. The good thing is WE ARE FIRE. Other elements might use this card, since it's the best mass-creature-control (CC) card in the game. Phoenix's aren't really worried about this card. Fire Bolt decks aren't affected.
Recommended counter: Phoenix, Fire Bolt

Water
Ice Shield - Being frozen is a pain and can cost games. Immolation can counter this a little.. same with Fractal decks. Deflagration makes it go away. Fire Bolt isn't worried about this card. Momentum isn't really necessary in this situation.
Recommended counter: Deflagration, Fire Bolt

Arctic Squid - Can freeze a lot of creatures if left unchecked. Just one of these can keep 4 creatures from doing any damage. Good thing is they're weak and any CC can take them out. Fire Bolts aren't affected.
Recommended counter: Any CC, Fire Shield

Light
Reflective Shield - Can completely shut down a Fire Bolt deck. However, a Fire Bolt deck can play an Emerald/Reflective Shield and 'bounce' the spell off himself to hit the opponent.
Recommended counter: Emerald Shield, Reflective Shield

Miracle - Fire can usually out-rush a deck using Miracles. Other than that, there really isn't a counter to it. Destroying Pillars.. if we wanted to go that route. Fire Bolts destroy Miracles.
Recommended counter: Fire Bolts, Fire rush, Destroying Pillars

Air
Thunderstorm - This may not present too much of a problem, but a whole army of Phoenix could be taken out. Other than that, shouldn't have to worry about this too much. Fire Bolt decks don't have to worry about this.
Recommended counter: Fire Bolts, [Phoenix still isn't too bad]

Owl's Eye - This card can kill any Fire creature in one shot [except Red Nymph]. Fire Bolts don't care.
Recommended counter: Deflagrations, Fire Bolts

Wings - This counters Lava Golems and Fahrenheigts. Everything won't have a problem with it.
Recommended counter: Play anything that's flying or a Fire Bolt deck.

Time
Reverse Time/Eternity - These cards could really hurt an Immolation deck.
Recommended counter: Deflagrations, Fire Bolt

Darkness
Liquid Shadow - This can kill a Phoenix or a Lava Golem in one turn, but it isn't too much to worry about.
Recommended counter: Crimson Dragon, Fire Bolt

Aether
Parallel Universe - Copying a big Fire creature could be a pain. Shouldn't have to worry too much about this card. One or two are really game winners.
Recommended counter: Fire Bolt

Dimension Shield - Such an evil card, but Fire has ways around it. Deflagration can destroy it. Fire Bolts don't care about it.
Recommended counter: Deflagration, Fire Bolt

Lobotomizer - Really only painful when used with other cards.
Recommended counter: Deflagration

Fractal - I'm almost positive that most vaults will carry a maximum amount of these cards. Firestorm could kill the creatures just as fast as they were put out.
Recommended counter: Firestorm

As seen.. most things can be countered with Fire cards (that's why it's the best element)
Any other thoughts?

[Hyroen]

I will admit that deck building is not my forte, but I've made an attempt in the following deck:

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Constructive criticism is appreciated.