Round 9 - Main Topic

[Higurashi]

Ah yes, I was gonna reply to the mark thing, but timed out. If I put my Aether Mark in a deck, it counts as a pillar. No conversion or anything like that required. If I want some more EQ resistance, I can use one.

Hm.. if Death are bold enough to use Dims against us in Reclusetal, we can go PU Phoenix with 4-5 Deflags and 2-3 Dims. The worst thing that could happen is they go Death/Darkness with Steals and it turns into a pure damage race, but they sure can't play two of those (4 Steals in salvage).

[willng3]

I've been Z-lined from chat because I keep disconnecting and then reconnecting too many times; not like I was able to contribute much to the discussion anyways x)

[YoungSot]

Ah yes, I was gonna reply to the mark thing, but timed out. If I put my Aether Mark in a deck, it counts as a pillar. No conversion or anything like that required. If I want some more EQ resistance, I can use one.

Glad to hear I've not gone crazy yet.
...though insanity didn't seem to slow Willu down much anyway, so I guess I shouldn't worry. 

[EngPhys]

I updated my post with pretty much all the chat I've been present for today.
Once we figure death out, we should be able to go through this round smoothly. As Pika isn't available the night before as he usually is, I propose we try to be finished ahead of schedule.

[EvaRia]

Sounds good.

Post some finalized decks here, and I'll put them in.

[deuce22]

This is a slightly modified (pill/pend split) version of what EP posted in chat, but it seems to function pretty well against 's SS Stall. No idea about it's performance against their other decks though.

by deuce22

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4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 590 590 590 590 593 593 593 5f6 5f6 5ia 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61q 61q 61q 61q 61r 61r 61r 63a 63a 63a 8pm

[EngPhys]

This is a slightly modified (pill/pend split) version of what EP posted in chat, but it seems to function pretty well against 's SS Stall. No idea about it's performance against their other decks though.

by EngPhys

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4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 590 590 590 590 593 593 593 5f6 5f6 5ia 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61q 61q 61q 61q 61r 61r 61r 63a 63a 63a 8pm

Sucks against fire duo, sucks against aether duo, kinda gave up after that.

Higs was suggesting PU Phoenix against death, if it takes out all the decks but EQ/SS and still has even a reasonable chance against that then maybe that's the ticket.
Devtal is still viable for one of us as well.

[deuce22]

This is a slightly modified (pill/pend split) version of what EP posted in chat, but it seems to function pretty well against 's SS Stall. No idea about it's performance against their other decks though.

Sucks against fire duo, sucks against aether duo, kinda gave up after that.

Higs was suggesting PU Phoenix against death, if it takes out all the decks but EQ/SS and still has even a reasonable chance against that then maybe that's the ticket.
Devtal is still viable for one of us as well.

The closer to a 50-50 pill-pend split, the better chance we have against their SS stall. This isn't quite 50-50, but it seems to stand a chance against the SS stall

by deuce22

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5f6 5f6 5f6 5fc 5fc 5fc 5fc 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61q 61q 61q 61q 61r 61r 61r 61r 61r 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 8po

EDIT: Also, is anyone currently working on finalizing the bonebolts for our matches against fire?

EDIT2: The above PU-nix went 5-3 against the SS Stall (even had an EM in there). 1 of the losses was due to poor quanta draw, the other 2 were very close (1 deflag away from winning). The general strategy seemed to be to deflag any early arses (and hope he doesn't have more), then save deflags for skull shield or final OTK. I also tried to play as few pends/pills as possible. Since the AI will deflag 1 pill or pend and give preference to tit shield, this might skew my results a bit. Bottom line, it has a chance against SS stall. EP is currently testing it against other decks. If he finds it wins easily, then he might go -1 phoenix +1 deflag.

[EngPhys]

Actually, I ended up using -1 pend +1 deflag:

by EngPhys

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5f6 5f6 5f6 5f6 5fc 5fc 5fc 5fc 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61q 61q 61q 61q 61r 61r 61r 61r 61r 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 8po

(R8) EQ/SS: 4-1, similar problems to deuce iwth AI misplaying, but I tried to adjust for that in game. If the AI ever played a skull shield and then overrode it with a diamond shield, I held off playing my deflag, and pretended I had 2 fire quanta less. We have a decent shot here, we can surprise deflag/lightning/PU/phoenix for the win in some situations against human players. This can be done by deflagging and arsenic and keeping a deflag in hand. The opponent should assume you have no deflags, and you can proceed to exploding the shield next turn (diamond only, kill SS immediately if you have any phoenixes on the field).

(R8) Fire duo: 5-0. The AI even had 15 boner walls at one point and I came back fairly easily. Deflags take care of arsenic, poison damage is too slow, and can help take down boner walls. I would use a deflag on a wall if I had 3 phoenixes and AI had 4 walls. This helped a lot, since I usually got Rage potted the next turn. Not much for the AI to deflag in our deck, and more dead cards for them is good for us. Smack any mummies, recluses, or dragons with lightning. Bzzt!

(R8) Aether duo: 5-0. This is where 4 deflags in a 30 card deck start to shine. Dim chaining is pretty useless, so you wait to get 4-5 phoenixes and can usually 2HKO after whittling away their HP with one or two phoenixes early, or lightnings.

(R7) Reclusetal: 5-0.  Sometimes I felt AI would play a creature too early, allowing me to lightning it. But with early phoenixes, the AI (or opponent) is forced to play dims, slowing the fractals almost indefinitely. If the AI doesn't play dims, I would say that PU phoenix should have more rushing power, and we can still use lightnings to zap recluses or zap the opponent. Against a devoted reclusetal, I'm no so sure what would happen. My deflags become close to dead (well I can jam aether production, that's not half bad). Need more testing here, but as deuce has just pointed out to me in chat, sending fractal/lightning our way may not be death's best plan (in their view).

So there you have it. Can Sot and I have 8 deflags please? =P

EDIT: Of course, I end up testing something that doesn't work first, and after about 2 sentences of chat with Higs everything is peachy.

[EngPhys]

Caught deuce in chat.
http://pastie.org/2016609

Random thought against UW:

by EngPhys

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55v 55v 55v 55v 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61q 61q 61q 61q 61q 61v 61v 61v 620 620 620 620 620 622 63a 63a 63a 63a 8pl

Obviously not finalized, but I can't seem to beat it with any UW decks. Either my leftover quanta from immo/nova is sucked dry and I'm screwed, or each BH gives around 20 healing and I can't outdamage it. Phase Dragon gets by wings which is super annoying too. Thoughts?

Alright, after more testing I've managed to take it down with an immonova deck with gnome riders and burning pillars. The AI definitely misplayed though, and I think if you can lightning the golem (the only lethal source of damage), then it's not a problem.

[Higurashi]

I'm expecting PhoeniXplosion from UW, so I will most likely go NovaGrabby. Will have time to test later tonight.

Okay, that posted before I was done... I will also test BH decks. Thanks Fizzy :>

[willng3]

Alright, after more testing I've managed to take it down with an immonova deck with gnome riders and burning pillars. The AI definitely misplayed though, and I think if you can lightning the golem (the only lethal source of damage), then it's not a problem.

And either way that's not a concern because I killed off the only one of those they had.