The AI3 Farming Challenge

[Delreich]

Note that the challenge is for no upgrades no rares. That said, that deck probably does fairly well even without the weapon.

[plastiqe]

Earth Mark is correct - for feeding the golems.  Morning Glory would not work at all, it's way too expensive.  If anything change Arsenic to a Hammer or Shortsword.  When I was building it I found the Arsenic was more useful when I was going for 4 turn kills (rare but definitely (http://www.d-e-f-i-n-i-t-e-l-y.com/) possible).  Hammer and Sword have the potential to take away the quanta you need for one of the critters.

[-Phiryos-]

I tested plastique's Deck. 90 minutes.

Games: 74 wins / 2 losses
Obs: Consider that I'm not a fast player, and especially the first 5-10 matches were quite slow (due to "testing"). 90 matches in 90 minutes is definetely possible, with fast playing and a bit of luck.

Also, I tested the Arsenic version, but poison was never crucial for victory. Just put in a dagger instead, or something cheap that use unexploited quantum.

Electrums: 1113

Great deck, very fast. It' not cheap, but it's worth it.

EDIT: I didnt' skip spins.

[Kameda]

@plastiqe
Morning Glory costs 5 light. What else in this deck uses light or random quanta??

@Delreich
=/
One rare that anyone can have after reach score 500 can't be used?
If not I'll test it with Morning Glory and with a Hammer or Dagger later.

[Marvaddin]

I have played Plastiqe deck for 90 minutes. Really impressive results, but not thaaaat fast. Are you guys skiping the spins?

54 Victories, 2 Losses (one to a blessed otyugh and other to eternity).

Cards won:
Firefly Queen
Devourer
2x Poison
2x Vulture
Lightning
Heal
Golden Dragon
Nova
Fire Bolt
Fire Shield
Pegasus
2x Photon
Forest Spirit
2x Reverse Time
Virus
Plague
Fire Spirit

Rares:
Discord (my 1st one, yay!)
Owl's Eye

954 Electrum coins

The deck problem is it usually need Immolation + Photon (or 2 Nova) to get started. If u dont get this cards in your initial hand, you can have a big problem, like a fire shield played before your creatures are in game. Eternity = game over, too. But as its a simple combination, u usually can be fast and the game is yours. Poor elders, lol.

[plastiqe]

Mark of

1 hour
51 wins
2 loses
857 Electrum won

I tried this again on the trainer with a different variation, this time I was trying for a bit more consistency so I switched to fire.  Not that my last session wasn't consistent, it was remarkably so.  Btw I am skipping spins, I never mentioned that.

Less wins in 4 turns.  In my previous 90 min session I had ~10 of them, this time it was only once.  Mark of Earth helped speed things up because Golems almost never went hungry.  Mark of Fire allowed me to play with Graviton's and get Golems out on a more regular basis, but it was not as fast at dealing damage.Arsenic was a lot better than the short sword.  Short Sword takes quanta randomly and whenever it takes from Fire, Earth, Darkness, Life, Water or Entropy it's costing me.  Once I played it the same turn as a Lycanthrope and it stole the Darkness I needed to upgrade him.  If I did this again I wouldn't use a common weapon.Owl's Eye, poisoning, Otyugh, Fireballs etc killed more Golems this game without the Earth Mark.I was just plain luckier last time.  I never had my entire opening hand wiped out by a thunderstorm & I never had a game where I had to discard cause I didn't draw any Nova or Photons the first time.  The Fire Mark was able to deal with rewinds better though.My two loses were against a 2nd turn Fire Shield when I had a bad hand (only 1 nova) and hadn't played anything yet.  I just quit that one.  The other you can see below, I had a great start but the water deck was on steroids.

Also, I made a video.  : )

[Kameda]

Just one comment. Nothing against skipping spins, but I think you should consider them so the new guys can have some information about the best deck to grind. Skipping spins is not good when grinding, you can miss some rares in the process. And even the cheapiest card (except pillars) will give you the electrum of another game.

[-Phiryos-]

Are you guys skiping the spins?

I didn't... Uhm, maybe I'll do another test run with that deck later.

@ plastiqe: this alternative version of your deck doesn't convince me. Fire mark with only 2 Gravitons? Also Lava Golems without earth mark for growth will be just too easy to kill. Plus it seems slower.

[plastiqe]

3 Spins adds about 8 seconds to the end of a win, so you can calculate how much longer it would be:  (wins) x 8s.  Spins are gonna be different every time anyways so I don't see much point in comparing cards won during each run.

@ Phiryos - that's pretty much what I wrote in my post lol.  I was just trying something different from the first trial I did.  I might use a fire variation in pvp though because I can slip in some Deflags easier.  Acelink (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,3497.0.html) has an upgraded pillarless deck that uses Fire, Earth or Entropy mark.

[Kameda]

I just think it's easier to compare the decks if the tests were done the same way.
In my test I split electrum gain in the games and with the cards.

Well, that's just me.

[Essence]

plastique, I can say with complete confidence that the 3 spins at the end of the game take just under 5 seconds from the moment the 'spin all' button is pushed until the last card is actually added to your pile (regardless of the graphics; it's added the instant the third wheel comes up the same.)  I've tested it extensively.   

[plastiqe]

The challenge is about finding the fastest unupgraded AI3 deck.  The more wins you have, the more spins you will get.  The point I'm trying to make is that what you get in the spins is irrelevant to the challenge.  Spins are random, sometimes you'll be lucky and sometimes you won't.  A new player might keep every card they win because they don't have a large collection, while an established player might sell every card they win for more profit.

Since OP didn't specify I think it's fine to do the challenge either way (with spins/without spins) as long as you say which one your are doing because spins do take a little extra time.