Round 9 - Decks

[Dragoon]

Round 9 - Decks

Xinef

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[Dragoon]

So what's the plan Xinef?  I assume you're going to take the Darkness Duo.  I'd guess with us being able to field Dim Shields, they're going to take BEs or some other kind of PC.  Well, probably not BEs since they know we have Lightnings.  Pulverizers are also out since we have Steals.  That leaves Deflags and Steals.  Since they are probably wanting to minimize the damage done by Devourers they're going to take a Nova or Immolation deck.  Those are also fast decks which is good against a our Fractal-Stall deck.  So expect to see Novas and Graboids then with 2-3 Deflagrations.  Add in a couple of Lycans and Discords since they can't hurt if they're stolen but can really hurt our Aether Duo.  Maybe something like this?

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So what does that mean for us?  Well, since they're playing the fast-aggro deck, we have to play the control-stall deck because we can't out-rush and out-damage them.  The hard part is that we don't have many control cards.  Aether only has 4 CC cards plus the 1 Eternity which makes for a pitiful arsenal.  5 Dim Shields are good but without CC cards, it's just delaying the inevitable.  So we should go with the Darkness Duo.  We definitely want to take all our healing cards again as well as the LS.  Too bad we didn't salvage that DL too.  You'll want to up the Stilettos and Vampires to maximize healing ability.  You'll probably want to up the Mantle too to play that as soon as possible.

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If you want to, you can live dangerously and replace the 2 Steals with another Dragon and Devourer.  It's risky, but if they plan on minimizing what you can steal anyways, having another Dragon and Devourer is more helpful than stealing a couple of their Pendulums.  : P 
Personally, I would go with the extra Dragon and Devourer and drop the Steals.

[Xinef]

I guess knows that we cannot make a trio deck, so they will try to make a deck that counters both the darkness duo and the aether duo. They might have their guesses as to which of those duos is more probable, so they might pack a bit more counters against that one, but generally they are not stupid and they'll be prepared for both.

So... since both the darkness and the aether duos are vulnerable to PC and to AoE spells (pandemonium can take care of devourers and is also good against fractal decks), they will probably take novas, and thus can easily pay for a deflag. Pandemonium is probable. I wouldn't expect permanents at all, since they know how many steals we have, although they may as well guess that we won't take steals because of that, and prepare accordingly

Anyway, let's look at our decks. Aether one has 4 lightnings, killer card against all entropy creatures (and grabbies) except grown lycans, and a good counter against AM. Fractal, can work with both Scarabs, Pharaoh (just make one scarab), and Devonians (if they don't quake my quanta production). Phase shields are quite useless since they surely can counter them.
This is a deck that could stand some chance.

Darkness... we have a lot more darkness cards, so a bit more flexibility. The lack of CC is the obvious weakness. Devourers are less useful against a nova deck, but they can nevertheless prove useful. They might drain preventing grabbies from evolving, drain darkness to stop lycans, drain to stop deflags. It's a good thing we don't have to fight a general or lieutenant, since they could take snovas or cheaper upped cards. Also, as much as novas seem good against devourers, in the longer run, a nova deck can be quanta drained. They might have to play 2 novas at a time, or keep a nova to use it when they have a grabby ready to evolve, for example. If they take CC our vampires and dragons will be in danger, if it's pandemonium then even pests are vulnerable, Maxwells and AM are also a big threat to the darkness duo.
Generally, this deck is pretty strong, but if they take a lot of counter cards, it will be entirely a matter of RNG. We might hope that they expect the deck and thus pack more counters against that one.

Also, I guess we have to avoid using Liquid Shadow. It's only good offensive use would be against Maxwells or BE'd creatures. Shriekers, dragons and even abominations are not worth it. Defensively, it would be powerful when used on our dragons, but extremely harmful if AMd.
We didn't salvage the Drain Life because it's quite useless with <20 quanta, and I never had more than that with this deck.




So... I guess we should take the darkness deck with steals replaced... there's really not much else we can do. If they get a low nova draw for example, we are golden
It's also faster than the aether deck, so IF they get a bad draw, it can take advantage of it. The aether stall, even if they don't draw any PC early, would simply give them more time to draw it.


So, I guess that's it.

As for salvaging, we have to remember that after I win this duel, Dragoon will be playing again. We'd need 30 Time cards for that. Thus we have to convert 3 cards now and 12 cards during round 10.
I converted the 3 fractals... we could convert some phase shields or some darkness cards, but I guess we can simply drop the deck and go with the duo if we can salvage enough cards.

Oh, and I decided to take an upped Pharaoh rather than one of the Dusk Mantles. We need to make some use of the Time quanta, and if they pack Maxwells and AMs the Pharaoh is our best counter.