(Element) Amulet|(Element) Talisman (
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,14304.0.html)
"Immolation enabled a completely new genre(Immorush, Immobow) of deck type to form.
What currently nonviable or impossible genre would your card enable?
Describe how it does so and critique the impact of that genre on ETG."
My Amulet and Talisman series were never developed with the idea of actually creating entire new genres of decks; they aren't nearly as revolutionary as Immolation in that regard. Amulets and Talismans were developed to stabilize and diversify the mono, duo, and trio range of decks, which I've always felt were largely weaker in today's metagame. Decks within this range often attempt to utilize combinations that rainbows don't often attempt, such as Dive/Blessing combinations, or Momentum and Dune Scorpion decks. These combinations, depending on the individual cards are often difficult to setup in time and even worse to balance quanta and card-wise.
I designed the Amulets and Talismans to take advantage of this fact. For example, I'd like to point out my Nightstalker v3 deck below:
Hover over cards for details, click for permalink
5uq 5uq 710 710 710 710 710 713 713 713 713 713 713 715 715 71e 71e 71e 71e 71e 71e 72i 72i 72i 72i 72i 7t9 7t9 7ta 7ta 7tb 7tb 8ptI have to resort to using Pendulums to pull of my lopsided quanta combination. Talismans would work effectively here, allowing me to get enough quanta to easily play a Nightfall or Eclipse and the Vampire Dagger. In place of the Pendulums, I could place some Talismans and some Bone Towers, allowing me to streamline my
quanta while not sacrificing
quanta. It optimizes my duo deck nicely.
Other duo style decks it could influence would be a Steam Machine deck. 5x Steam Machine, 6x Amulet, 3x Ice Shield, 4x Freeze, 12x Water Pillar, and a Water Mark could make for a mean deck as well.
Amulets and Talismans would also allow for more flexible trios by freeing the third element from operating off of the mark. In my experience, I've found that Pendulums aligned with the mark produce more quanta of that mark. Using a third element off of the mark makes Pendulums largely useless and the other combinations clunkier. Amulets and Talismans would allow the 3rd element to be used at need, freeing the mark for Pendulum and Pillar use by the other primary and secondary elements.
Lastly, Mono decks would be assisted by this as well. An Overdrive/Massive Dragon deck could stand to benefit with its expensive cards. An Elite Otyugh would be put into play faster with a combination of Towers and Talismans, permitting a creature lock earlier. Mono decks can gain some needed speed, especially against decks like vNG or Grabbix which feature Immolation as a method of nearly outspeeding every other deck in today's metagame.
One of my biggest fears with these cards however is boosting the rush deck too much, which is why Amulets and Talismans are currently limited 6 to a deck, as well as having a timer mechanic on them. This is to ensure that any rush deck that uses them cannot rely on these cards for their sole quanta production; a single Discord or other disruption would harm them more. That being said, the timer, and even the amount of quanta produced are not set in stone, especially with concerns to balance.
If there were radical new archetypes to be built however, I suspect they would be in the quad deck range, or perhaps in decks that rely on abilities with limited activations.
EDIT: I thought of an entirely new deck archetype with this. Platinum Talismans, Leaf Dragons, Mitosis, and Jade Dragons. It would empower an entire new dragon rush type deck while at the same time giving a strong boost to other pump decks such as Firestalls and Siphon decks.
