Upped Mono-Darkness AI3 Grinder(s)

[mrbarbarian]

This is a simple deck Ive been testing, principle is just to rush the ai3, while darkness isnt normally a rush element the healing from the Daggers and the still slightly efficient str/quanta of gargoyles makes it fairly consistent and fast, I dont think this is optimized so if anyone has any suggestions feel free to post.

Deck:
Mark - Darkness
Obsidian Tower - 9
Obsidian Dragon - 4
Vampire Dagger - 2
Gargoyle - 6
Dark Pendulum - 9

Play Order:
1. Vampire Dagger - Best str/quanta + healing
2. Gargoyle - Second best str/quanta
3. Dragon - Mostly there to use up quanta for more damage

by mrbarbarian

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t5 7t5 7t5 7t5 7tb 7tb 7tf 7tf 7tf 7tf 7tf 7tf 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 8pt

Stats for first 50 games:
Games Played: 50
Wins: 48
Losses: 2
Win %: 96
EMs: 8
EM %: 16

TTW Average: 6.5
Time/Game Average (s): 53.9
Electrum Gain: 1022
Score Gain: 982
TTW W/EM: 5.36 (Each EM counts as 2 wins)

TTW:
4: 0
5: 6
6: 25
7: 11
8: 3
9: 2 (Both against Fire/Water due to deflags/freeze/rain of fire)
10: 0
11: 0
12: 1 (2x Basilisk blood, 2x Stone Skin, 3rd creature draw on about turn 7)

Losses:
1. Discord + Maxwell Demon by turn 3, was only able to play maybe every 3 turns and then the maxwell destroyed them instantly
2. 1x Silence, 3x Dimensional Shield, was simply unable to damage giving the paralleled dragon and the spiders time to ko.


Pest Variation V1:


Deck:
Mark - Darkness
Obsidian Tower - 7
Obsidian Dragon - 4
Pest - 6
Improved Steal - 2
Eclipse - 2
Vampire Dagger - 2
Dark Pendulum - 7

Play Order:
1. Pest/Vampire Dagger (If first turn, dagger, if ai gets first turn, pest)
2. Pest/Vampire Dagger (See above)
3. Eclipse (If 2+ creatures out it gives equal/better str/quanta than dragon)
4. Obsidian Dragon - the real heavy hitter
5. Steal - Shields/Weapons if you have no daggers out

Deck:

Code: [Select]

7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t5 7t5 7t5 7t5 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t9 7t9 7ta 7ta 7tb 7tb 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um
Stats for first 10 games:
I stopped at 10, you'll see why

Games Played: 10
Wins: 10
Losses: 0
Win %: 100
EMs: 3
EM %: 33.3

TTW Average: 8.9
Time/Game Average (s): 74.4
Electrum Gain: 240
Score Gain: 225
TTW W/EM: 6.84 (Each EM counts as 2 wins)

TTW:
7: 2
8: 6
9: 1 (Discord)
18: 1 (2x Stone Skin (totaled 130+ healing), 2x Basilisk Blood on only Dragon until turn 15)

Notes: I replaced the gargoyles due to the fact that there would be serious quanta production issues with 8 towers if you wanted 6 pests + gargoyles, pests just arent designed for rushes unless maybe in a pest/fractal/eclipse rush which I may try. This just isnt worth the time, straight forward dragon/gargoyle rushing is far better.


Vampire Variation V1


Deck:
Mark - Darkness
Obsidian Tower - 7
Obsidian Dragon - 4
Improved Steal - 2
Eclipse - 2
Vampire Dagger - 2
Vampire - 6
Dark Pendulum - 7

Play Order:
1. Vampire Dagger
2. Vampire
3. Eclipse (If 2+ creatures out)
4. Obsidian Dragon

Deck:

Code: [Select]

7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t5 7t5 7t5 7t5 7t9 7t9 7ta 7ta 7tb 7tb 7td 7td 7td 7td 7td 7td
Stats for first 10 games:

Games Played: 10
Wins: 10
Losses: 0
Win %: 100
EMs: 6
EM %: 66.67

TTW Average: 8.2
Time/Game Average (s): 72.8
Electrum Gain: 306
Score Gain: 276
TTW W/EM: 5.125 (Each EM counts as 2 wins)

TTW:
6: 1
7: 2
8: 4
9: 1 (2x Lightning on Vampires)
10: 1 (Miracle, Endowed Vampire Crusader (14 str))
11: 1 (2x Pandemonium

Notes: Assuming you get EMs this consistently this is marginally superior to a straight forward rush.

Vampire Variation V2:


I dont have time to do stats but Ive played 3 games with 3 EMs and turns of 7,9,8 respectively (TTW W/EM being 4):

Deck:
Mark - Darkness
Obsidian Tower - 5
Obsidian Dragon - 2
Pest - 6
Improved Steal - 2
Eclipse - 2
Vampire Dagger - 2
Vampire - 6
Dark Pendulum - 5

Play Order:
1. Vampire Dagger/Pest (See V1)
2. Vampire
3. Eclipse (If 2+ creatures)
4. Obsidian Dragon

Deck:

Code: [Select]

7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t5 7t5 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t9 7t9 7ta 7ta 7tb 7tb 7td 7td 7td 7td 7td 7td 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um
Stats for 10 games:

Games Played: 10
Wins: 10
Losses: 0
Win %: 100
EMs: 8
EM %: 80

TTW Average: 8.3
Time/Game Average (s): 72.7
Electrum Gain: 353
Score Gain: 313
TTW W/EM: 4.61 (Each EM counts as 2 wins)

[Selvaria]

Um, add steal? Mono aether ai3 plays phase shields pretty fast, and chain them often too.

Furthermore steal actually helps since some of those decks field shields pretty fast.

[Neurodeus]

Just Selvaria said Steal is important in maintaining control such as removing some of those pesky Shields. Also even though Gargoyle is and awesome 7/3 for 5Q one cannot ignore the fact that Vampire's vampire ability nets you Elemental Mastery.

Last point including Pest to disrupt's you opponent's game flow since you are slowing the AI down, and speeding you up is a must.

[mrbarbarian]

Just Selvaria said Steal is important in maintaining control such as removing some of those pesky Shields. Also even though Gargoyle is and awesome 7/3 for 5Q one cannot ignore the fact that Vampire's vampire ability nets you Elemental Mastery.

Last point including Pest to disrupt's you opponent's game flow since you are slowing the AI down, and speeding you up is a must.

Steal - Was a bit of an oversight on my part not to include it however I find that shields are a rarity and in terms of slowing the deck down and looking at my notes on the 50 games cc was the reason for 7+ ttw in 4-5x as many games, maybe 2 instead of towers would help for those occassions, stealing an early dimensional shield with a dagger out could lead to an em I guess.

Vampire - This is a rush deck so sacrificing at least 1 turn every game in order for I think 4 healing/vampire and far from a guaranteed EM, Id say that vampire dagger does the job reasonably well while speeding the deck up with 6str/2quanta, I may try vampires but I doubt its worth swapping gargoyles considering darkness' lack of efficient str/quanta.

Pest - Similar to Vampires really, will cost at least a turn per game and in most cases pests dont do much in small numbers which is what Id expect to have by turn 6, as for speeding me up they take 2 turns before they pay for themselves as they make 1/turn but cost 2, in this time a tower produces 2 (+1 for playing) without costing anything.


Edit: Having tested Vampire/Pest decks I conclude by saying that as a mono-darkness rush Pests are simply unviable however with eclipse/dagger/dragons vampires as an EM deck is the best of the 3 by 0.2 ttw over straight forward rush.