Upgraded AI3 EM Grinder [Ver 1.26]

[Bootsza]

With the new AI3's in 1.26, I found that a lot of the Ai3 grinders that I was using were not as effective as before.

They seem to have more CC, shields and better decks all round.

So, I tweaked my old Darkness EM AI3 grinder a bit and eventually settled on this:

by Bootsza

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t9 7t9 7ta 7ta 7tb 7tb 7tc 7tc 7tc 7tc 7tc 7td 7td 7td 7td 7td 7um 7um 7um 7um 8pt

It is a pretty standard "Team Edward" vampire deck.  You shove out some pests, get quanta, play vamps, dagger, eclipse and win.

Now, I know that there are tons of these kinds of decks out there but I didnt see one that looked like mine (I searched using the deck code).  The tweaks were:

*  A standard split of Towers and Pendulums to mitigate effects of Earthquakes;

*  Two Eclipse to make up for the lack of heavier hitters (no dragons);

*  Two Improved Steals as permanent control.  Use them wisely.  Save them for your opponents game changers (Pulverisers, Lobotomisers, various shields);

*  Five Siphon Life as creature control.  It may seem like a lot but you are going to use them to ensure the EM at the end of the game too.  Drain any creature that can really hurt you: Maxwell's, Oty, something with Butterfly Effect, etc... You may need to do some maths to ensure the EM.  If your opponent doesn't have enough HP for your Vamps to heal you to full, it sometimes helps to drain a creature or two instead to get the EM.  Remember too that your pests are going to get played first in most games and when Eclipse is out they will therefore generally hit first.  I have sometimes drained my own pests to get the EM.

If you win the coin toss and have enough quanta to play either a pest or a dagger on the first turn: play the dagger as the pest has no opposition quanta to drain.

I don't think it will work too well against AI5 as with only 4 towers and 4 pendulums it relies heavily on the pests for quanta.  You can get away with a slow start because the AI3 only uses unupgraded cards and can't really do much in the first turn without quanta.

There is no TTW study yet but I have the feeling it probably sits at about 9.  The EM rate is really high and obviously improves as you become more comfortable with the killing blow calculations.  It also takes some special circumstances for this deck to lose

Any input, advice or criticism welcome!

[Bootsza]

I did some TTW tracking using Jmtd's spreadsheet.

TTW = 9.8  EM rate = 83%  Win rate = 100% through 71 games against AI3.

Link to google docs spreadsheet below.
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AppmKH6pTkQZdDQ5dThLRVZ1T0FLbTZTNGRTOGpLY2c&hl=en

[kirchj33]

I'll do 200 games in the next few days as well and let you know how it goes from a secondary source.

[Bootsza]

Thanks mate!

Enjoy the score boost from all the EMs

[kirchj33]

Just to let you know... through 75 games and I'm getting similar results... maybe even a little more impressive!

This seems to be the mono darkness deck I've been looking for!  I can't stand the inflexibility of USEM and some of the other rush decks without PC and CC, so this is alot more fun to play and cerebral to use.  I feel like my stats may even be improving slightly as I go so it would almost be good to throw them out afterwards and play another 200.

I find it useful to keep the link to AI3 decks (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,17934.0.html) open while playing to help with life siphon/steal decisions.  Every deck has at least 1 game changing steal target, which is important to identify before just taking their land to help with your denial.

Bootza-  Thanks for tweaking mono darkness and improving upon it.  5 Life siphons did seem very strange at first!  On your spreadsheet attached, it no longer makes a lot of sense to keep track of AI3 opponent marks since there are 3 time decks, unless you can somehow be more specific (ie. rainbow, scarab, deja vu)

[Bootsza]

You are totally right about tracking the mark.  The new AI3 has changed a bunch of stuff.

Good call too on keeping an eye on what game changers your opponent has.  You get used to it after a while once you get accustomed to the dangers of the AI.  I was going to do a write up for strategy vs each opponent.  It wouldnt have to be long: just confirming the best stuff to steal, drain etc... Maybe I still should

The quanta denial thing is an unintended bonus from time to time.  Pests were mostly just to boost your own quanta pool but every now and then you get a good draw against a bad one and a lockdown happens.  I wasted a couple of games chasing that lockdown with stealing land.  I am not sure it is the best way to play it but it sure is fun when it works

Have you had any losses yet in your tracked games?

[nilsieboy]

looks a bit slow to grind AI3... if you want rush don't use pests

[Bootsza]

It is a little slower than some of the other grinders but not by much.  I have found that a lot of the good grinders pre 1.26 are now a lot slower and a have a much lower EM rate.

A TTW of 9.x and an 80%+ EM rate makes for some pretty good score accumulation.

[nilsieboy]

It is a little slower than some of the other grinders but not by much.  I have found that a lot of the good grinders pre 1.26 are now a lot slower and a have a much lower EM rate.

A TTW of 9.x and an 80%+ EM rate makes for some pretty good score accumulation.

water rush wich i use lost 2 out of 300 games and had ttw around 6...

[Bootsza]

That is pretty fast.  Does it still have that ttw rate in 1.26?  What is the EM rate like?

[kirchj33]

200 games done!

TTW = 9.66   Win rate = 99.5   EM Rate = 88.5

The loss was to air, where they zapped my devourers, played a queen and I didn't have the quanta to siphon it because of not enough lands/devourers, then played a hope.  It COULD lose others, but I feel 99.5% is pretty accurate as it would take a horrible draw and perfect AI3 draw to lose.

I did not keep track of average time, as I was somewhat distracted at times, but I feel it would be somewhere between 90-100 for me.

Here is my final statsheet linked from google docs:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Am2NpVDyToyBdGJlMGtkVk1Ncnd2ZU9FTTFGWVdHSXc&hl=en#gid=0 (https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Am2NpVDyToyBdGJlMGtkVk1Ncnd2ZU9FTTFGWVdHSXc&hl=en#gid=0)



My thoughts:

1. There is a pretty steep learning curve with the deck as far as playing it to perfection.

2.  This is now my preferred AI3 deck, not being a hardcore farmer.  I love the cerebral aspect of this deck, and love perfection, ie. EM's.

3.  This should NOT be considered a rush deck because of the slightly lower TTW, however, I feel it should be taken seriously by the community, possibly even in the TTW study for its ability to win and EM better than most other decks.

Great job Bootza!  Cheers.

[YawnChainHow]

Love this deck, Bootsza. Just upgraded most of it yesterday (still got 2 Siphons to go) and it is working fine. I actually have a few losses, but most of them are probably due to lack of experience, and the rest are Rain of Fire+Deflag completely wiping my field. The games where the Pests have a quanta lock on the AI for the whole game are probably the best ones, I don't even know why I enjoy them so much when I all do it pet Spacebar.

By chance, I accidentally replaced the Daggers with Cloaks and I think it might work better. Dagger is good in easier games and not as helpful in the ones where you're unlikely to EM. Cloaks are not as helpful in easier games but great in games where you're in trouble (any reusable CC or Deflag imminent). Overall, it might improve the speed, because Daggers save maybe a few minutes over all the quick games whereas Cloaks are going to save you several over all the games you risk getting shut down, stalling for , and Siphoning for the kill.

I'd like to hear from some other people about this, since the Cloak phenomenon might just be me having something to compensate/cancel out all the mistakes I make due to inexperience.