Quicksand Something, as people have remarked all too often, is largely considered to be OP, and leaving someone without towers on the first turn of the game is devastating, especially combined with a few choice cards. But that's for later. The only reason EQ is considered to be so OP is that, like with Poison and Purify, there are ways to stop it completely that most people never use because they are "Too situational". The best counter is obviously not to have any pillars, or basically, run a pillarless deck. They work best with Novas and Immolations tied together with lava golems and other cheap cards, but I'm getting to broad again. The other counter is PA, or Protect Artifact (Enchant Artifact unupgraded), which is cheap enough to be fueled by your mark, but will slow you down considerably when the opponent has no permanent control. It's a pretty incredible card if they do, though, it also means you're screwed if you're packing Earthquake.
It's best uses are probably with other cards that screw up quanta, since it stops them from gaining any that isn't their mark.
The best 3 out of those are:
Rewind- Works incredibly well with it because of the already existing Graboid synergy, and you can send any card back to their deck to both deny them of their next draw and force them to either use what little quanta they have up so you can Rewind it again, or be forced to let it sit in their hand, a dead card since they haven't got any quanta.
Graboid- It works so well in combination with Rewind that an entire deck is based around it. It works, too, and is incredibly fast while having excellent control over both creatures and permanents. The Graboid is the hitter of that deck, coming out for a measly 3
and then being able to evolve next turn into a whopping 10/4 has left many people (Myself included) with the feeling that it needs a nerf.
Devourers- The fact that devourers suck up their quanta and Earthquake stops them from making any more has led to a natural synergy between the two. The deck is easily done with Earth mark and mainly Dark-heavy, using vampires and dragons for the main offense, or with a simple Darkness mark to bring them out, since they'll speed each other along once you hit the 2
starting point.
Completely unintentional 400 words exactly, not counting these.
Heavy Armor Heavy Armor is a pretty under-used card, since most decks are either rush or use a special synergy to be effective, and the doesn't have many. The few it does have, though, it words wonderfully with. It's super-low cost means you can splash it in just about any deck you want, just by changing your mark to Earth. Although, most people will favor something like Blessing over this card, since it gives a boost in attack as well as making it a bit more sturdy. It can give any creature you want more than enough survivability to last, and will also make it un-edible to an Otyugh, possibly the most feared creature control card. The extra hp isn't usually that helpful, but with a few choice cards, it's much better than a blessing:
Otyugh- Since this is a creature that relies completely on it's hp, it's only natural to have such a great synergy with Heavy Armor. For 5
and 1
, you can completely destroy any non-immortal creature under 11 hp, which is quite a big chunk of the available creatures. Not many decks can remain unfazed by a 0/11 Otyugh coming out on the second turn. Earth also shares the Pulverizer with Gravity, and Basilisk Blood combined with Gravity's Shield allow you to make any creature you can target useless for 6 turns, and then it still won't be able to attack. Obviously, nearly the same thing applies for scarab.
Rage Potion- A lot of people will say that you can get +6/+6 for the same quanta with Blessing, but Fire/Earth is special in that it has such an incredible card, Lava Destroyer. Paired with Cremation, there's a deck possible that can net 3 turn wins with only a little difficulty against AI3. Played in conjunction with Armor, it's an automatic +6/+0, and it can be used offensively as well.
Spark- Spark is a personal favorite card with a lot of people, and 4 very cheap cards can give you a nice creature that only costed you 1-2 quanta. The favorite among these is probably momentum, since it gives you a cheap 6/1 with ignores shields for 1
, the second being Blessing, for a 8/3, 3rd is Chaos Power, and unfortunately Heavy Armor takes it's place at the back simply because it doesn't add any damage. 5/6 are pretty good stats though, and although it loses damage, it gains stability, a feature of all Earth cards.
Aww, 407 :/
Basilisk Blood Basilisk Blood is like a double-congeal, but the fact that it adds +0/+20 to whatever you tager with it makes it incompatible with other damage spells, which means it's also best to use in a rush deck, when hopefully you will have won in 6 turns and it doesn't come back at you with 20 more health. Since Earth has no Direct-damage spells, and is very good at rushing, it naturally would look like a good card to have. But unfortunately, Earth already has 3 incredible low-cost cards to fill those slots, along with 2 more situational ones. Almost always, an extra Graboid, Antlion, or Quicksand will be more use than stalling an enemy, so it's not used very often. When it is, though, it shines.
Gravity Shield- Hands down, best synergy for it. Enhances the already existant Gravity/Earth combo by making it so that even after 6 turns, the creature
still can't attack you.
Armagio- This works ok, but is much more effective if you have a nymph or can splash light for guardian angels. Also, you've got to remember to play it, and then use it's ability
before you use BB, or it'll be useless for 6 turns.
Otyugh/Scarab- This doesn't work well, but is as close as it can get to another synergy, since BB is a general use card that has it's drawbacks. If you can stall for 6 turns, then it's great, and you can get a 0/25 creature ready to devour, but it's almost always better to use Heavy Armor to get a 0/11 that, while it will only be 6/17 6 turns later, it will also usually have gogtten rid of 6 creatures, which is a huge advantage. It works okay with adrenaline, making you wait only 2 turns, but that requires 3 elements for something that a Heavy armor still almost always does better.
