Well, the restrictions certainly made this less fun than I would have liked, but I was still pleased by the results of my creation.
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6rk 6rk 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ad 7ad 7ad 7ad 7ao 7ao 7ao 7ao 7ao 7ao 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 80d 80d 80d 80d 80d 80d 8puEDIT: Yes, I did a legit TTW Study. I figured that if I'm going to be recording TTW values, I may as well go all the way, right?
Games: 49
avg. Sec/Game: 164.735
Sec/Turn: 12.02980626
Clicks/Game: 17.122
Clicks/Turn: 1.250372578
Score/Min: 6.957383548
Electrum/Min: 6.957383548
Time overall (min.): 134.533
Wins: 40
Ems: 0
Losses: 9
Score: 936
Electrum [base]: 936
Avg ttw: 13.175
Win %: 81.63
Upped cards won: 1
ttw 3: 0
ttw 4: 0
ttw 5: 0
ttw 6: 0
ttw 7: 0
ttw 8: 0
ttw 9: 1
ttw 10: 5
ttw 11: 4
ttw 12: 9
ttw 13: 8
ttw 14: 5
ttw 15: 2
ttw 16: 1
This deck counters several tactics used by AI5 using the Scorpions + Phase Shield combo. Shields go up? Poison keeps hitting them. Creature spam? Eat a Phase Shield. Jade Dragons use up the excess quanta, plus they hit through Wings and survive every type of CC at least once, which are nice touches. I considered using Jade Staffs instead of Long Swords, but Long Swords added the nice touch of being both faster and conflicted less with the quanta being used by my critters in this deck. Also, I wanted to try and do a grinder without needing Heals and, due to the ban, Adrenaline.
Your major problems for this deck are going to come from Momentum, Earthquake, and Permanent Control since you absolutely need that Phase Shield to go up as soon as possible, to stay up as long as possible, and to permit as few critters from breaking through as possible. Shields which reduce 2 or more damage make the Scorpions useless, but this is why I added Jade Dragons and Long Swords; they're about the only way to get around that using this setup really. The deck is passive aggressive, inflicting damage while taking none yourself is a great feeling, and inhibits your speed very little. There have been times where I haven't even needed the Shields and my Scorpions just blew the AI over; even without Fractal they're a force to be reckoned with indeed. I didn't receive a single EM, which is unfortunate, but I managed a win percentage greater than 75%, which was my goal all along.
For those seeking an unupped deck, I can't tell you exactly how this deck will perform, but I can nearly guarantee your speed and loss rate will be much more noticeable than before. Your Forest Scorpions will be blocked by more Shields given your attack is reduced to 1, but as a plus your Dragons will be able to get out faster due to them costing 2 less
to play. Dimensional Shields will be slower to play with an additional 1
cost, but once the chain begins I doubt this would be very problematic. I would probably advise switching the Swords for Druidic Staffs in this case since 3 damage isn't exactly going to be very groundbreaking most of the time...plus you'll be taking more damage so the extra healing should be useful. The biggest issue (as with all HB grinders) will be your Pendulum/Pillars. Without receiving 1
quanta upon play, your Forest Scorpions will be much much more difficult to play, so much so that I might actually advise switching your weapons to extra Pends/Pillars just to compensate for this.
