Malignancy is a Virtue

[ElementalDearWatson]

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52s 52s 52s 52s 5l9 5l9 5l9 5l9 6rm 6rm 6rm 6rm 6rt 6rt 6rt 6rt 6rt 6rt 6rv 6rv 6rv 6rv 710 710 710 710 710 710 71a 71a 8pk

Something I'm working on.  Can build up quite a bit of damage quite quickly.  Aflatoxin your own Photons, then play a Shard of Patience.

Vulnerable to CC, obviously, but the good thing is that the AI's creatures don't see the Malignant Cells as a threat.  So, for example, the AI will play a Rain Of Fire, which is utterly devastating, but Scarabs won't Devour your Cells, Maxwell's Demons won't Paradox them, etc.

The other good thing is that the Shard Of Patience has its effect before the Malignant Cell reproduces, so the new Cells attack.  This can be useful against Bone Walls.  It's also not terrible to get 22 ATK over 5 rounds while simultaneously building up creatures with a Shard of Patience.  Slightly less attack over fewer rounds if you use Aflatoxin on more than one Photon.

It's also, obviously, vulnerable to Permanent control, but it can survive a certain amount, especially if you've already got your Cells out and can wait for the AI to kill your Towers before playing your Shard of Patience.

And, as with all Shard of Sacrifice decks, it's vulnerable to Purify.

I know I need to play more games to get a reliable picture but, so far, I've played 5 games each against a variety of AIs, with the following results:

3
Lost: 1
Won: 4
EM: 1
ATTW: 14

4
Lost: 2
Won: 3
EM: 1
ATTW: 17

Bronze
Lost: 2
Won: 3
EM: 0
ATTW: 13

Silver
Lost: 1
Won: 4
EM: 1
ATTW: 10

Gold
Lost: 4
Won: 1
EM: 0
TTW: 16

Platinum
Lost: 4
Won: 1
EM: 0
TTW: 11

I'm sure with some tweaking (and upgrading the Aflatoxins) those figures could improve.  Any suggestions welcome.

[Chapuz]

you rely on SoSas and you don't have drawpower... even Sundials...

[furballdn]

Interesting. Reminds me a bit of this.

Things to consider: Light mark, perhaps sundials? Up those aflatoxin.

[ElementalDearWatson]

you rely on SoSas and you don't have drawpower... even Sundials...

I'm not sure if you're suggesting something here or not.  Could you be clearer, please?

[Chapuz]

you rely on SoSas and you don't have drawpower... even Sundials...

I'm not sure if you're suggesting something here or not.  Could you be clearer, please?

Yes. You NEED drawpower to keep the SoSa chain, and  mark suggests upped Sundials.

[furballdn]

you rely on SoSas and you don't have drawpower... even Sundials...

I'm not sure if you're suggesting something here or not.  Could you be clearer, please?

Yes. You NEED drawpower to keep the SoSa chain, and  mark suggests upped Sundials.

You don't really need the drawing power of sundials. Just the one turn stall of sundials is enough to keep a chain up. Speaking from lots of experience playing with SoSac Dials.

[ElementalDearWatson]

Interesting. Reminds me a bit of this.

Yeah, same strategy.  Had I seen that I might have posted this in that thread instead.  But I couldn't find the card code for the Shard of Patience so couldn't search.

Things to consider: Light mark, perhaps sundials?

Might be interesting, although I'm not sure what I'd sacrifice, whether the loss in quanta would be worth the extra turns, and I'm a little leery of using something which speeds up a draw in a deck which relies on waiting.  Still, on the other hand, they could help protect the Shard of Patience, if they have a higher priority for the AI.

[ElementalDearWatson]

Yes. You NEED drawpower to keep the SoSa chain, and  mark suggests upped Sundials.

I find that with the Shards of Divinity that you can often play the Shards of Sacrifice every 3 turns and just ride out the turn where you have no protection.  Mind you, furballdn's correct in that a Sundial can do the job, too.  Having a break between playing Shards of Sacrifice means that the AI will play more creatures, which equals more healing and more chance of an EM.

The real pain, I find, is decks which don't have a lot of attacking, so you're stuck with an AI with 12 ATK slowly draining your health but making playing a Shard of Sacrifice an even worse idea than just sitting there and taking it.

[Laxadarap]

Yes. You NEED drawpower to keep the SoSa chain, and  mark suggests upped Sundials.

I find that with the Shards of Divinity that you can often play the Shards of Sacrifice every 3 turns and just ride out the turn where you have no protection.  Mind you, furballdn's correct in that a Sundial can do the job, too.  Having a break between playing Shards of Sacrifice means that the AI will play more creatures, which equals more healing and more chance of an EM.

The real pain, I find, is decks which don't have a lot of attacking, so you're stuck with an AI with 12 ATK slowly draining your health but making playing a Shard of Sacrifice an even worse idea than just sitting there and taking it.

Actually, if ai has 12 damage, playing sosac is still beneficial.  You lose -40+12+12=16 hp, instead of 12+12=24 hp.

[furballdn]

Using SoSac is beneficial if they have 12|10 damage on the field. You get your health back if they have 24|20 damage on the field.

[ElementalDearWatson]

True.  I suppose then it's the balance between playing it straight away or waiting to see if they'll play more damage and thereby allow you to heal.

Anyway, I've been playing more AI4.  I've upgraded 2 Aflatoxins so far, but am counting all the stats together, so I think it's 5 games have 2 upped Aflatoxins, 15 have 1 and the original 5 have none.

Lost: 6
Won: 19
EM: 4
ATTW: 14

The average turns to win might be too high, as I have a habit of waiting until I can wipe my opponent out in one turn, rather than taking the quicker route of getting rid of the Shard of Patience earlier.