Psion Fractal Massacre [PVP1 and AI3 farmer]

[Hazardus10]

I seem to see variants of this all around the arena...

Well I wouldn't be surprised, its quite effective in countering most defensive mechanisms.

I just tried out this deck and I love it!

I am glad to here it, some slight variation you can try are +1 spark -1 Psion or for more field control +1 lobotomize -1 Psion

[Xaoh]

I have been playing this deck all morning and it is definitely fun but I am not sure about it, it feels vulnerable and slow to me but I am coming from playing invulnerable cards so i'm willing to bet my feelings are biased (love my phase dragons). The fact that when I play the Fractal all my mana is gone after the fact makes it feel slow, the only other experience I have with Fractals is a Dev/Vamp Fractal deck so obviously I don't have the problems with mana in that deck that I do with this one.

I love this concept, and my favorite part about it is that Dimensional Shields are useless against this deck. All morning I think I only lost 1 game to be honest but they all seem to be very close, only thing saving me being that its a 30 card deck so I am drawing almost all my DS. I also don't have much room in my hand for a very good Fractal because I have to hold all my DS to survive, that leaves me only getting 4-5 Psion per Fractal and then I have to destroy a Psion to proceed cause my hand is full and my Fractals and DS I have to hold. I feel like Psion don't do enough damage to make this small Fractal entirely worth it, the kill potential is slower with the 4 dmg Psion it seems.

I haven't found a very good time when i'm thrilled that the Spark is in my hand, mostly because of what I already said I don't feel like I have enough room in my hand for a good Fractal on the Spark in order to do a good amount of damage. This may be something that I take out as a result of the extremely situational damage output. I'm not sure what I would put in its place to be more reliant, I did have a couple games where it took way too long to draw a single Psion (chalks up to bad luck really) so maybe that. I will say the amount of DS is extremely important, those are my direct lifeline it seems which is a scary thing personally to rely on just because a destroy perm or steal will lose me the game easily.

All that being said it seems to be a very nice AI3 farmer because I don't worry as much about losing my shield, but it still happens. Not sure about PVP because personally I don't experience too many games where someone doesn't have an answer for my DS and it just feels way to slow and vulnerable to be efficient. All in all I do enjoy this deck, I plan on using it more today especially for AI3 which ive been looking to farm with a nice deck lately.

I am new here to the forums as well as the game, all my input is subject to the fact that I may not know what I am talking about. I like your deck and feel like it was worthy of my input and experience from the morning. I would give it a 4 out of 5 with two things to say about that. Not a 5 because it feels too slow and reliant upon DS, alternatively not a 3 because I did have a very successful morning with it. My feelings are mostly based on how secure I feel behind it but it gets a 4 because of its performance.

[Arkhonist]

Would the addition of a lobotomizer be of any use in this deck?

[Goldfish]

This is a really good half blood farmer as well, but it REALLY helps if you split towers and pendelums half and half.

[markids]

this deck gets demolished by devourers pvp

[xyan]

This deck has another pro: advantage over the more common mono-aether decks (including mine) where lobo is pretty much needed asap.

as for big cons, one was mentioned: dev/pests, especially in the mono dark dev/dragon deck. dont be afraid to use a shield before you hit a tight spot, but also dont wait too long or a steal will ruin you. if the deck is slow to put out dragons or fractal vamps, then hold out on shield so the ai (unless pvp mode) will attempt wasting its steals on your extra pillars. luck plays a huge role, and my mono aether dragons + dark splash daggers/steals suffers from my luck vs mono dark.

[Neeliyo]

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My own take on the deck. Pendulum/Pillar split helps against earthquakes. Everything else should be fairly self explanatory. Great for bronze farming, special spins come in really quickly.

As a side note, the upped cards are from another deck, and are not necessary in the least.

[Higurashi]

Mod for Community-Recommended Decks against AI4 and Bronze Arena (also the optimal build and most used one):

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Calling it Psiontal like most people do.

Newbie-friendly version:

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Possible mods include:

• -1 Psion, +1 Short Sword
  
• -1 Psion, +1 Aether Pillar

Obvious improvement for Earthquake resistance once you have electrum:
-7 Aether pillars, +7 Aether pends

[sirpercival]

Why would you call it Psiontal? Fraction is sitting there waiting to be used... blah.

Anyway, in the process of building an upped New Old Times, I have a bunch of upped aether cards, so this is my mostly-upped version of this. Very nice bronze/silver grinder.

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[andretimpa]

Why would you call it Psiontal? Fraction is sitting there waiting to be used... blah.

psion + fractal? It's been called like that even before Hazardous' post (it is one of aether's main decks in wars since psions appeared)

[Higurashi]

Most Fractal decks end up being called (creature name/first easily identifiable stem word of creature name) + tal because of three reason: the first stem word is usually more recognizable, it generally sounds better, AND because of habit. Chargetal, for instance, could only mean Fractal Elite Chargers to anyone who has been around for a while. Fracharge is less used because it doesn't flow as well off the tongue. Devtal/Pestal is another very common one, as well as Vamptal. Fractire sounds like you have a thing for tires. Sometimes newer people make compound words and go FracDevs or similar.

One very notable exception is Fractix. No other creature ends with ix but the Phoenix, and it's a very iconic creature. Normally if people reverse it, it's Phoenixtal. Using the entire name is often necessary for clarity if you use the odd (depends on the specific creature name) affix of the Fractal word.

In the interest of giving you gameplay advice, I strongly recommend all normal Dim shield stalls to be 30 cards. The chance to accidentally break a Dim chain with 30 cards is big enough: you really don't want to reduce your odds of drawing a Dim by increasing the deck size. Offensively, however, it is indeed very nice to be packing 6 Psions. But since a 30 card 6 Dims deck has a lot of lasting power, you're not really in a hurry those first few rounds, especially if you get an Electrocutor. With the ramp damage Fractal offers, you probably won't be a turn faster with 6 Psions compared to 4.

[sirpercival]

Oh I recognize the tradition behind it, it's just... fraction is actually a word and it's so perfect that I had to say something. Lol.

I hear you on the psion thing, I'll have to give it a try.