Slow but useful bronze farmer[SoP]

[Black Bishop]

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

4tf 4tf 596 596 596 596 596 596 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5up 5up 5up 5up 5ur 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 6rv 8pm

<Strategy>
1. Grow devourers with SoP while wardens killing enemy creatures. At least they can 'guard'.
2. Devourers should be burrowed while growing. Unborrwing will double the damage they can deal.
3. Remove SoP and unburrow devourers when they are grown enough to end enemy in 2~3 turns.
4. Steal shields before this last blow. You should stack 'steal's till this moment. Early stiletto is necessary against bonewalls.

<Weak against>
1. Mono death
2. Mono darkness
3. Other decks spamming dragons.

[Arwulf]

Not to discourage, but I am naturally critical. It's all in good jest, though:

1. Grow devourers with SoP while wardens killing enemy creatures

Wardens don't kill: dragons, scarabs, psions and a bunch of other airbornes. The general idea (SoP + Iridium Warden) seems fun, though.

2. Devourers should be burrowed while grown. Unborrwing will double the damage they can deal.

I think you mean 'growing'; also, fun interaction (burrow - growth - unburrow) -> seems unfair logical-wise, though (untargetable but still growing? pshaw)

3. Remove SoP and unburrow devourers when they are grown enough to end enemy in 2~3 turns

Although in theory this sounds as a solid plan, I see this not working out the way you intend. For instance, I foresee you running into the following problems:

1) Poison and/or weapons that kill you long before you are in killing range. This also concerns opponents who have (multiple) lifegain in play allowing them to heal for 20 a turn. In short, it might take a while before they are in 2~3 turns kill range.

2) You running out of cards since your plan is to stall with only three SoP back-up; it looks as if you would often just sit there with Wardens and Devourers and nothing else going on.

3) Of course each deck has it's strengths and weaknesses, but I fear this specific build loses to rush as well as to dedicated control. This is not even taking into account further advantages the AI has in Arena (double card-draw, increased mark, higher HP).

4. Steal shields before this last blow. Early stiletto is necessary against bonewalls.

I fear you might run out of Steals if you absolutely need them to get damage through in the end. This will not be the case against all opponents in Bronze as many don't use shields or weapons, but against the players where it does matter you might find you need to use two or three Steals only to stay alive.

  All in all though, I like the theme and I have not encountered it often. If you have done some more playtesting I would be curious to see what your own conclusions are about this current build and how any deck updates might look.

Finally, on a personal note, I doubt what the market is for Bronze farmers that include 3 SoP, one of which is upped 

[summerz88]

Better Version:

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

4tf 4tf 4tf 596 596 596 596 596 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5uo 5up 5up 5ur 5ut 5ut 5ut 5ut 5ut 8pm

[Elbirn]

I for one like the idea. It's been done before of course, but I like that you put your own spin on it with wardens. Nice job  8)

If you wanted to keep going with this idea, I'd suggest working on making gocubbies Patient Devtal

http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,43263.msg539219.html#msg539219

@Summerz: SoP doesn't really work with vampires though ;P

[summerz88]

My 9/2 vamps would dissagree

[Elbirn]

..My sleep deprived brain seems to have confounded itself, or otherwise just pooped out nonsense, thinking the intent behind your deck was to OTK and EM with vamps. Which wouldn't work, really. But as a cheap creature given massive buffs, thus turning it into a heavy hitting healer, yes, that's awesome. Takes a few turns to really get them going though..

[Black Bishop]

1. Grow devourers with SoP while wardens killing enemy creatures

Wardens don't kill: dragons, scarabs, psions and a bunch of other airbornes. The general idea (SoP + Iridium Warden) seems fun, though.

Other airbornes are not troubles. But dragons are.

Spoiler for Hidden:

2. Devourers should be burrowed while grown. Unborrwing will double the damage they can deal.

I think you mean 'growing'; also, fun interaction (burrow - growth - unburrow) -> seems unfair logical-wise, though (untargetable but still growing? pshaw)

4. Steal shields before this last blow. Early stiletto is necessary against bonewalls.

I fear you might run out of Steals if you absolutely need them to get damage through in the end. This will not be the case against all opponents in Bronze as many don't use shields or weapons, but against the players where it does matter you might find you need to use two or three Steals only to stay alive.

Obviously, this deck isn't a PVP deck. You can stack 'steal's till last few turns.
(Burrow-growing-unburrow) -> it works unless you get a bad draw in firsthand.

Spoiler for Hidden:

 

1) Poison and/or weapons that kill you long before you are in killing range. This also concerns opponents who have (multiple) lifegain in play allowing them to heal for 20 a turn. In short, it might take a while before they are in 2~3 turns kill range.

2~3 turns kill range means 50~100 damage. Healing doesn't matter with this damage.

2) You running out of cards since your plan is to stall with only three SoP back-up; it looks as if you would often just sit there with Wardens and Devourers and nothing else going on.

Yes. Bad draws ruin this deck.

Spoiler for Hidden:

<Against dune scorp, pilarless growth rush, earth rush>

Spoiler for Hidden:

[rickerd]

I would just put in some dusk shields, maybe 1 more SoP to prevent bad draws more often, 3/4 steals are fine but don't stack them (the opponent won't have more shields at once (maybe sundial))

Better Version:

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

4tf 4tf 4tf 596 596 596 596 596 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5uo 5up 5up 5ur 5ut 5ut 5ut 5ut 5ut 8pm

You are way too low on  quanta
and your 9/2 vamp will only get killed while chilling in the field

[summerz88]

You are way too low on  quanta
and your 9/2 vamp will only get killed while chilling in the field

I hate to sound like I'm defending myself since this is the third post I've made, But you're wrong.
The pendulum version had way too much earth quanta, and unless you draw 4+ wardens its impossible to use it all.
In my deck, you only use guard if you're killing something, or it does more damage than you can tolerate (given you have a fair bit of healing), Ideally yes id take some more earth quanta, but then you risk bad darkness draws.

And I've tested it with 6 losses out of 37 (Was going for 50 but got bored) games with 5 EMs against bronze
And a >80% win rate vs AI3. (didnt play many games).

Weakest against Mono Aether (nothing to kill, and can only stop psions from casting) because of less steals.
Second Weakest is Mono Fire with lots of CC.

Yes stuff gets killed, but this is bronze, not gold we're talking about.

[Elbirn]

Maybe the vamps could be swapped out for Gargoyles? Bit sturdier than the vamps, wouldn't you say? Course then you might need some pends, and as has already been stated, don't wanna mess up the darkness draws..

[Belligerence]

It's worth noting that an upgraded variation was made by SnoWeb, which is capable of farming Gold/Plat. It's actually pretty effective, at least against decks that rely on creatures that aren't flying.

I'd personally suggest changing the mark to Darkness, and replacing all the pends with earth pillars. This should make it a bit more stable. After all, the Darkness quanta is used mainly by the Devourers, who, themselves, are like pillars. If you do this, I'd suggest dropping the amount of pillars to 9 (-1 pillar), and removing a single Steal, adding 2 Dusk Mantles in place of them. The Dusk will help reduce the damage taken on the first turn a creature attacks, as well as in the event you end up against a bunch of fliers. But all in all, it's a great idea. If it gets stolen, you can steal it back before you attack, so it won't really hurt you if it's stolen. I'd been playing in Plat with a partially upgraded version of this earlier today (not necessarily to better effect than some other decks, but its fun).