Eagle's tutorial

The guide that keeps on giving

There are a lot of guides out there. I object to many of them for these reasons:

• They are outdated since they rely on specific decks
• They emphasize one-way grinding
• They don't explain how to use things

Furball's tutorial solves these, but by making you make your own decks. I will take a middle path-- Giving you possible decks, and tips on how to go around them and other decks you might find in the forums. That way you can climb up on other giant's shoulders, rather than having to be your own giant. My approach will also help you avoid giants that don't raise you where you want.

Oh, and the decks are a combination of my recommendations and the community's recommendations. There's a reason the deck section of the forum exists.

This is not a glossary. If you can't understand some of the terms I use, look in the glossary. This is not an FAQ either. Look around in the forums, or post your question in the simple question thread.

General tips

When you lose a match, you lose the amount of electra it says you will lose. Simple enough. But when you win, you don't just get the amount of electra it says you'll win. You're guaranteed half of it on a win, and the other half you get is proportional to the amount of HP you have (Which means that by using stone skin or SoD, you may get more than promised), and a non-EM 100 HP victory gets you what is promised. EM's, gotten from having HP equal to max HP on the killing blow, double your electrum reward. I suspect score runs like that.

There's also the spins. When you win a match, you can get up to 3 spins. The cards are pulled from the opponent's deck, with an algorithm to make wins from the spins practically possible. Getting the same card in the 2 front reels gives you 5 electra, while getting all 3 the same gives you 5 more electra and the card. Unless you're facing up against HB's or FG's, you will always get unupped cards from normal spins. Spins have no effect on score.

Try not to sell cards unless you're assembling a grinder. You'll lose about 30% of the card's value by selling one.

NEVER, EVER sell a rare. When you start trying to assemble a grinder that has the rare, you'll regret it. This goes for ultra-rares, too.

(The selling rules don't apply if you have more than 12 of a card for unuped or 6 upped of a card for upped.)

If you run into a deck from a few updates back, check the end of the thread to see if the grinder still works in the version the game is currently in. If it isn't there or you have questions, go ahead and post your question.

Unless you have tons of electra to spare, try not to try untested decks in the main game yourself. Use the trainer for that.

Keep a backup grinder in case your main grinder loses too much.

Started

So you've created an account by clicking the "start now" button, and you have to choose an element. Which one?

The answer depends on which deck you will grind with later. To get to the decks, sell the most expensive cards that aren't in the deck you want, win battles, collect quest rewards, and buy cards that are in your deck.

First, you'll want to quickly get to AI3 to start off your grinding.

AI3

AI3 decks come in 2 basic varieties: Rushes, and EM rushes. (Some decks, such as TADAbow, use control, but successful decks for AI3 are always fast.) Rushes are geared to bring in electra quickly and with little work, and EM rushes are designed to bring in score with equally little work. Unupped decks for AI3 tend to be rushes, as electra is a bigger concern at the start than score, and upped decks for AI3 tend to be EM rushes, as the players of upped decks already have lots of electra, but it takes a ridiculous amount of score to be in the top arena leagues.

5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5ig 5ig 5ig 5ig 5ig 5ig 8pp

Fastest mono unupped deck out there. It's also dirt cheap. Choose water for this deck. Spawn as many nymphs as you can as quickly as possible, and crush your opponent with a zerg rush.

52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52h 52h 52h 52h 52o 52o 52o 52o 52o 52o 52t 52t 52t 52t 52t 52t 8pk

Another fast mono AI3 farmer. Choose death for this deck. Play quanta sources ASAP, and spam creatures and poison quickly to win.

4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4vh 4vh 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 52o 52o 52o 52o 52o 55q 590 590 590 590 590 590 5c7 5f6 5if 5if 5lf 8pm

A deck geared towards AI3 that is easily modded into other novabows. Choose darkness for this deck (yes, counter-intuitive). Play quanta sources quickly (Don't play 3 novas in a turn or you'll get a singularity), and play creatures and poison equally quickly. Click lycanthropes and graboids to turn them into strong creatures, and use mind flayers to lobo threatening creatures such as maxwell's demon. Play momentum and blessing on creatures to fend off damage protection, adrenaline on a shrieker, mind flayer (preferably momentumed), or a momentumed lycan for more damage. Use the deflag to remove a shield or a healing permanent.

4t4 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 590 590 590 590 590 590 591 591 591 591 591 591 8ps

Good old shrieker rush, cheap, fast, and versatile. Choose earth for this deck. Play quanta sources ASAP, and play creatures and the short sword quickly. Evolve graboids to turn them into shriekers for the win. Keep graboids unevolved and shriekers burrowed (by clicking them) to fend off CC in certain cases (You'll learn which by experience).

500 score quest completed

So which rare do you use now that you can choose one?

Trick question. You don't. You shouldn't choose something just because you have the chance to. I recommend that you only choose it when you have a deck plan firmly in mind, and you're not going to go away from it.

Now that we've squeezed more than a bit of resource from AI3, let's go to a more profitable area.

Half-bloods

Maybe you want to squeeze stuff out of the level 4 AI's, half bloods. Not a problem unupped. But there are some significant differences between AI3 and HB's:

• HB's have 50 more HP, so they are harder to rush. (There are still upped HB rushes.)
• HB's get more from their mark, and they draw twice as many cards.
• HB's decks are disorganized, but some of their cards are upped. Winning against HB's occasionally gets you upped cards.

61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61s 61s 61s 61s 61s 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 61v 61v 61v 61v 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 8pu

Simple mono aether. Some mono aethers use loboers to make the block-off more complete, SoG's to EM more easily, or psions or phase recluses for faster damage. Play creatures, and use dim shields to slow the barrage of damage from the HB's. If you use loboers, lobo momentum, spell damage, and poison.

4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 55q 5fb 5fb 5la 5mq 5mq 5mq 5op 5rl 5rl 5rl 5rl 5rl 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 61r 61r 61r 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 8pu

An HB OTK. Choosing this will put you on the fast track to the first 6-up false god deck I'll post below. Use HG's to draw and draw and draw, and use dim shields to block off damage. You might need to discard cards to keep drawing, so discard excess HG's and dim shields when you need to. When you get down to 10 cards, wait for 2 , 6 , 12 , 9 , and 21 , and only continue speed-drawing when you have all that quanta. To win, put down cards in this order all on the same turn: Light Dragon, then momentum on the dragon, then both rage potions on the dragon, then 3 PU's on the buffed dragon, then sky blitz to finish.

4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4vh 4vh 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 55t 55t 590 590 590 590 590 590 5c1 5c5 5f6 5f6 5i7 5og 5og 61q 61q 61q 8pm

A control grabbow. Spam creatures, and use the control to stop singularities and threatening HB creatures. Play the fog shield when you get it to cut back damage.

False Gods

There's also the possibility that you'll want to face the FG's now that you can. Watch out. These guys may not be gods, by they are sure powerful. So why are they farmed anyway?

• The oracle predicts which one you will face once a day, letting you prepare a counter deck.
• The false god's name appears on the right-hand corner, allowing players to ditch unfavorable matches very quickly.
• False gods often drop upped cards when defeated, making them a good upped card source.

The following summaries briefly describe the general strategy of the deck. For more specific strategies, see the deck thread or the FG articles in the wiki.

4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 560 576 576 5op 5pu 5pu 5rl 5rl 5rl 5rl 5rl 5rl 5rm 61r 61r 61r 61r 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 622 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 8ps

A FG OTK. Choosing this will put you on the fast track to the first 6-up false god deck I'll post below. Use HG's to draw and draw and draw, and use dim shields to block off damage. You might need to discard cards to keep drawing, so discard excess HG's and dim shields when you need to (Not for PC-heavy gods). When you get down to 15 cards, wait for 31 , 70 , 9 , and 7 if there is a shield up, and only continue speed-drawing when you have all that quanta. To win, put down cards in this order all on the same turn: Clear hand of cards, devonian dragon, as many PU's as possible, fractal the dragon and put the copies down, sky blitz, and chimera (if there is a shield) to finish.

4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 52k 52s 52s 542 542 560 5f8 5f8 5ia 5op 5rl 5rl 5rl 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 622 8pu

Another FG OTK, this one relies on a different mechanism. Choosing this will put you on the fast track to the first 6-up false god deck I'll post below. Use HG's to draw and draw and draw, poison weak creatures with aflatoxin, and use dim shields to block off damage. You might need to discard cards to keep drawing, so discard excess HG's and dim shields when you need to (Not for PC-heavy gods). When you get down to 15 cards, wait for the board to fill up with malignant cells and 10 , 15-18 , 7 , 9 , and 7 if there is a shield up, and only continue speed-drawing when you have all that quanta. To win, put down cards in this order all on the same turn: Clear hand of cards, vultue, fractal the vulture and put the copies down, rain of fire, sky blitz, and chimera (if there is a shield) to finish.

4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 58v 58v 5fa 5fa 5if 5if 5rl 5rl 5rl 61o 61o 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 621 621 622 8pu

One of a once-vibrant category of decks called rainbow controls. If you have an improved miracle, throw it into the deck. Use the HG's to draw, and try to keep a dim shield chain connected while a quinted golem beats down the FG. Use pulvies to destroy mainly shields and healing. Use fractal to oerwhelm the FG with creatures in 1 shot to prevent burst healing from ruining your game. Upgrade the HG's when you get the chance to.

Bronze

Once upon a time there was T50. Then T50 developed into place to farm rares, with threads where people asked the T50 people to put up farms. Zanz picked this up, and he developed Arena (formerly called T500), putting an end to an era where rares didn't live up to their name. So that's how we got this Arena.

That said, the arena, especially bronze, is generally agreed to be the best place to farm rares. Rare farming isn't gone; it's just made harder by encouraging the deck-givers to make their decks win, and letting them put bonuses into their decks. (The deck-giving part is discussed in the having fun unupped section.)

To fight a deck in the arena, choose a league:

• Bronze gives about 10 electra on a win and takes 15 on a loss. It takes 5 consecutive wins to get to a rare spin.
• Silver gives about 60 electra on a win and takes 15 on a loss. It takes 4 consecutive wins to get to a rare spin.
• Gold gives about 130 electra on a win and takes 15 on a loss. It takes 3 consecutive wins to get to an upped rare spin.
• Platinum (often shortened to plat) gives about 215 electra on a win and takes 15 on a loss. It takes 2 consecutive wins to get to an upped rare spin.

And this rare spin? It's where you get rares. You have 3 chances to spin each reel, and if they all match up the same, you get a rare.

• Try to avoid breaking 2 of a kind unless you really don't want to win a specific rare or you have run out of spins at the odd one out.
• If all 3 reels are different, spin the one that has the most spins left.
• If you run out of spins on one of the reels, you'll just have to get it if you get a rare.

5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5ul 5ul 5ul 5ul 5ul 5ul 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5up 5up 5up 5up 5ur 5us 5us 5us 606 606 606 606 606 8pt

Monodark, a versatile deck. Use pests to deny the opponent and use the dragons to beat down the opponent. Steals are to remove shields and other annoying permanents, and drain lives to remove CC creatures and finish off opponents.

4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4vh 4vh 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 52q 52q 55q 55q 590 590 590 590 590 5c1 5c1 5f6 5f6 5i7 5og 5og 61q 61q 8pm

PvP grabbow is also a versatile deck. Use creatures and arsenics for a beat-down. Momentum for getting around shields, fogs to block off some damage, and control for well... control.

61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 622 622 622 622 625 625 625 625 625 625 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 8pu

Psiontal. Use dim shields to hold back damage, and when you're well protected from damage and have around 10 aether quanta, fractal a psion.

52h 52h 52h 52h 52h 52h 52i 52i 52i 52i 52i 52i 52p 52p 52r 52r 52r 52r 52v 52v 52v 52v 52v 52v 61p 61p 61p 61p 61p 61p 8pk

Some sort of death stall thing. Use sparks to fuel the initial bursts of death quanta, and viruses and plagues to feed the bone wall when it comes. Burst damage with dragons.

Silver

While Bronze is an awesome place for rares, Silver is an awesome place for electra unupped. Just ask Annele.

4vh 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 52q 55q 55q 5f6 5f9 5f9 5f9 5f9 5f9 5fa 5fa 5fa 5fa 5fa 5if 5if 5l9 5l9 5l9 5l9 5l9 5l9 5og 5rr 5rr 8pm

Sample unupped silver Immorush given by Annele. Just bolt out your attack and control enemy creatures. Fast and easily moddable.

4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4vh 4vh 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 52q 52q 55q 55q 590 590 590 590 590 5c1 5c1 5f6 5f6 5i7 5og 5og 61q 61q 8pm

Grabbow also works well on Silver. See above.

5c3 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5uo 5up 5up 5uq 5uq 5uq 5ut 5ut 5ut 5ut 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 61q 61q 61q 61q 61r 61r 61r 61r 61r 61u 8pu

Trio silver farmer that uses adrenavamps. Use bolts to stall until you can PU an adren'd minor vampire many times. Slower, but wins and generates EM's more easily, could be modded for better wins.

Want some fun unupped

You're bored with grinding already. Now what? Try some of these decks in PvP1 or a weekly tournament (please don't spam to get in)

4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4vh 4vh 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 52q 52q 55q 55q 590 590 590 590 590 5c1 5c1 5f6 5f6 5i7 5og 5og 61q 61q 8pm

PvP grabbow. Again. Yes, it's very versatile.

4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 52q 52q 55t 55t 55t 590 590 590 595 595 595 595 595 5c1 5c1 5fb 5lf 5v0 5v0 5v0 8pm

Deck designed to look like a grabbow... until the player pulls out a voodoo doll + BB's + GP. Play it like a grabbow, but hold onto the voodoo doll, BB's, and GP until you can do the combo.

4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4vc 52g 55k 58o 5bs 5f0 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i9 5i9 5i9 5ig 5ig 5ig 5ig 5ig 5ig 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5l8 5oc 5rg 5uk 61o 8pp

Nymph's tears + specific towers makes for a versatile deck. Stick NT onto a water tower, then wait for pillars. If you find a good one, convert it and use it.

5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f5 5f5 5f5 5f5 5f6 5f6 5f6 5f6 5f7 5f7 5f8 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5li 5li 5li 5lm 5lm 5lm 8pq

Firestall. Get defenses up, control whatever comes your way, then win in 1 of 3 ways: Fire bolts, Farenheit, or deckout.

4vc 4vc 4vc 4vp 4vp 4vp 4vp 4vp 4vp 5c6 5c6 5c6 5c6 5c9 5c9 5c9 5c9 5v0 5v0 5v0 5v0 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 8pn

OTK by Chapuz. Spawn lots of dolls with fractal, stall with bonds, then when the time comes, send out lots of pandemoniums to kill your opponent in one turn.

Want some fun upped

To be continued... (Categories set up before-hand to make organizing easier)