Strategy

[Mithcairion]

  Malignant vs.  Bootsza
Last round (Theonlyrealbeef vs. RavingRabbid)

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55q 55q 55t 55t 562 562 562 562 562 562 5uu 5uu 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 7tg 7tg 7tg 7tg 7tg 7tg

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52o 52o 52o 52o 52o 52o 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i5 5i5 5i5 5i5 5ib 5ib 5ib 5ib 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 7gk 7gu 7gu 7gu 7gu 7i6Well, we got very lucky in this matchup and sometimes, it's better to be lucky than it is to be good.  Good thing we're both.Bootsza played one of the most creative decks I have ever seen last round:

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4ve 4ve 4vl 4vl 4vl 4vl 55k 55k 55k 576 576 576 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5ie 5ie 5ie 5ie 5ie 5ig 5ig 5ig 5jm 5jmTikotribe is a very underrated deckbuilder, as he built both this deck as well as well as a very creative Death/Light stall.  Despite their losing record in round 1, it would be very dangerous for us to underestimate this team.

I would not be surprised at all to see one of these decks:

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4vj 4vj 4vj 5f6 5f6 5f6 5f6 5f6 5ii 5ii 5ii 5ii 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 7gk 7gm 7gm 7gm 7gm 7i6 7n0 7th 7thReasons for thinking this:  Steam Machines are a great 'ramping' creature.  Anyone who has used them can tell you just how powerful they can be.  In addition to this, they pair very well with Deflagrations, which pave the way for damage.  Also, the 6 HP for the Steamies makes them very resilient to CC.
Reasons why they may not:  No upgrades for this deck so it would not nearly be as dangerous.  Also, this deck is very vulnerable to quanta denial.
Unupped I see -Novas, Fog Shiels, and Nightmares, + Ice Shield, Steam Machines, and Deflagrations

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5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i8 5i8 5i8 5i8 5i8 5i8 5jm 5jm 5jm 5l8 5l8 5l8 5lg 5lh 5lh 5li 5li 5li 5li 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5mq 5mq 5mq 7gp 7gp 7gpReasons for thinking this:  Obviously, we have the stall again.  Sanctuary protects them from quanta denial while the CC of shields and Ice Bolts halt whatever creatures we have.
Reasons they may not:  The Sanctuaries hurt a bit, but they do not have the benefit of having Enchant Artifact in combination with this deck, so pillars/pends are prime EQ targets, and Sanctuaries/Shields are prime stealing targets.

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52l 52l 52l 52o 52o 52o 52o 52o 52o 52q 52q 5i5 5i5 5i5 5i5 5i5 5i5 5id 5id 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jm 5jmReasons for thinking this:  This could very well be the new speed poison archetype.  Skull Shields have been gone over ad nauseum, so I will not belabor the point here.  We do not inherently pack Purify, so they could see poison as a problem for us.
Reasons they may not:  They tried to play a speed poison vs. us last round and failed, they may very well go for a different tact this time.  Also, no defense vs. the quanta denial we're famous for.

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4vi 4vi 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 590 590 590 590 5f6 5i8 5i8 5ia 5ib 5ic 5ic 5ic 5if 5if 5og 5og 5v1 7i6 7i6 7i6 7i6 7i6 7i6Reasons for thinking this:  Has the speed of the Grabow, but with the obvious strength of pillar destruction.  Also an annoying amount of effective CC.  Aslo, they may feel that the Novas protect them from our quanta denial.
Reasons they may not:  This deck actually makes a lot of sense for them to play against us, I can't think of a good reason they wouldn't, unless they feel another deck has a better chance against us.  This is not to say that we couldn't destroy this deck, I just can't think of any reason why they would think it would fail against us.
Likely salvages from round 1 (Max 18):

3 Enchant Artifact6 Basilisk's Blood1 Chaos Seed3 Discord3 Steal6 Dimensional Shield2 Maxwell's Demon2 Purple Dragon

As has been the case with other teams,  ended up with a salvage of only 18 while they had a discard of 30, meaning that they may very well not end up taking anything off of this list, and instead maintaining their pendulum/pillar balance in their vault. 

While I haven't done any testing yet, it looks to me like we may do well with a denial deck.  EQs, Devs, and Steals should render useless just about any strategy they choose to throw at us.  My only question would be which form that deck should take to be most effective.

Edit:  I've started testing this deck vs. Water's favorites and so far I'm liking the results.  Anyone who is willing to help would be much appreciated.

[TheonlyrealBeef]

Wizardcat vs.  Avenger

Last round (mrpaper vs. TimerClock14)

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4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 593 593 593 593 5on 5rk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5ul 5ul 5ul 5ul 5um 5um 5um 5um 5up 61q 71a 7t5 7t8

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58o 58o 58o 58o 58u 58u 58u 58u 58u 590 590 590 590 590 595 595 5f6 5f6 5f9 5f9 5f9 5f9 5f9 5f9 5fa 5fa 5fa 5fa 5on 61qWell, didn't we JUST go through this?  Ok, that's out of my system.  Once again, the exact reason that Earth is so tough is their versatility.  They can both rush and stall with the best of them, and throw elements of one into the other, to boot.  One interesting thing to note is that they played both teams that have PC readily available to them ( and  ), and yet took Enchant Artifact against neither of them.  While I wouldn't necessarily count on this trend continuing, especially two rounds in a row, it does show that they were ahead of the metagame in the first matchups. 

I would not be surprised at all if they used one of these decks:
Anything from this:

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58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58s 58s 594 594 594 594 594 594 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5l8 5l8 5l8 5li 5li 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5mq 5mq 5mq 7k2 7k2 7k2to this:

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4vh 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 52q 55q 58o 58o 58o 593 593 593 5aa 5aa 5aa 5c1 5f6 5f6 5og 5ur 61q 77g 77g 77g 77g 77g 77gto this:

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593 593 593 593 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5rk 5rk 5rk 5rk 5rk 77g 77g 77g 77g 77g 77g 7qe 7qe 7qeor anything in between.
I went back to last War to see what was effective against Earth, since we have obviously been having problems with this on our own.  What I concluded was that Earth was vulnerable to decks that featured Wings, Discord, Reverse Time, and Dimensional Shield.  My first instinct was to go the Discord route, but in the end, I came up with this deck that would actually be very effective vs. any stall or rush they throw at us:

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5oi 5oi 5ol 5ol 5ol 5on 5on 5oo 5oo 5oo 5oo 5up 5up 5up 5up 5uv 5uv 5uv 5uv 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606Possible mods: -4 Steals, +2 Novas, +2 Purifies (They have been favoring poison in some of their decks).
This deck has the ability to outlast their stalls (41 cards), and the plethora of pendulums works as it's own counter to EQ.  In addition to that, the Owl's Eyes can be flown if playing the right deck (no danger of RT).  These along with the Gargoyles provide all the damage one needs vs. their rushes.  Also, with their rushier decks, the CC that this deck packs is absolutely devastating to them, especially since the Graboids won't be upped.  The one weakness this deck would be their dragons, since they both fly and have great HP.  That being said, they cannot expect us to bring Wings against them, so I believe this deck should very effective against them.

Likely salvages from round 1 (Max 36):

11 Graboid5 Lycanthrope6 Discord28 Nova6 Deflagration6 Reverse Time2 Arsenic4 Earthquake4 Devourer2 Owl's Eye

Earth is in position to take advantage of a great opening round and can get some new toys to play with.  I know Kakerlake went on many of the threads and posted how happy he was to have more Novas, but I firmly believe that was a poor smokescreen on his part.

Eagles modded to outstall stalls? Interesting idea, though I'd be more confident if we had more Wings in there. Isn't it extremely likely to get outrushed before being able to stall? You'd be glad with just one Wings in 10 cards, while they are likely draw to a deflag in the meantime

I think Wiz tested Vader and results were pretty good. Vader is a great deck unless they pack RT, although it might beat even that with some strategic play and proper draws. Right now, I have more faith in Vader and strategic play than in drawing Wings in time
Feel free to try to persuade me otherwise though :P

[Jaymanfu]

I guess im the only one thats a little scared of my deck ;;

[Mithcairion]

Wizardcat vs.  Avenger

Last round (mrpaper vs. TimerClock14)

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4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 593 593 593 593 5on 5rk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5ul 5ul 5ul 5ul 5um 5um 5um 5um 5up 61q 71a 7t5 7t8

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58o 58o 58o 58o 58u 58u 58u 58u 58u 590 590 590 590 590 595 595 5f6 5f6 5f9 5f9 5f9 5f9 5f9 5f9 5fa 5fa 5fa 5fa 5on 61qWell, didn't we JUST go through this?  Ok, that's out of my system.  Once again, the exact reason that Earth is so tough is their versatility.  They can both rush and stall with the best of them, and throw elements of one into the other, to boot.  One interesting thing to note is that they played both teams that have PC readily available to them ( and  ), and yet took Enchant Artifact against neither of them.  While I wouldn't necessarily count on this trend continuing, especially two rounds in a row, it does show that they were ahead of the metagame in the first matchups. 

I would not be surprised at all if they used one of these decks:
Anything from this:

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58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58s 58s 594 594 594 594 594 594 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5l8 5l8 5l8 5li 5li 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5mq 5mq 5mq 7k2 7k2 7k2to this:

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4vh 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 52q 55q 58o 58o 58o 593 593 593 5aa 5aa 5aa 5c1 5f6 5f6 5og 5ur 61q 77g 77g 77g 77g 77g 77gto this:

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593 593 593 593 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5rk 5rk 5rk 5rk 5rk 77g 77g 77g 77g 77g 77g 7qe 7qe 7qeor anything in between.
I went back to last War to see what was effective against Earth, since we have obviously been having problems with this on our own.  What I concluded was that Earth was vulnerable to decks that featured Wings, Discord, Reverse Time, and Dimensional Shield.  My first instinct was to go the Discord route, but in the end, I came up with this deck that would actually be very effective vs. any stall or rush they throw at us:

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5oi 5oi 5ol 5ol 5ol 5on 5on 5oo 5oo 5oo 5oo 5up 5up 5up 5up 5uv 5uv 5uv 5uv 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606Possible mods: -4 Steals, +2 Novas, +2 Purifies (They have been favoring poison in some of their decks).
This deck has the ability to outlast their stalls (41 cards), and the plethora of pendulums works as it's own counter to EQ.  In addition to that, the Owl's Eyes can be flown if playing the right deck (no danger of RT).  These along with the Gargoyles provide all the damage one needs vs. their rushes.  Also, with their rushier decks, the CC that this deck packs is absolutely devastating to them, especially since the Graboids won't be upped.  The one weakness this deck would be their dragons, since they both fly and have great HP.  That being said, they cannot expect us to bring Wings against them, so I believe this deck should very effective against them.

Likely salvages from round 1 (Max 36):

11 Graboid5 Lycanthrope6 Discord28 Nova6 Deflagration6 Reverse Time2 Arsenic4 Earthquake4 Devourer2 Owl's Eye

Earth is in position to take advantage of a great opening round and can get some new toys to play with.  I know Kakerlake went on many of the threads and posted how happy he was to have more Novas, but I firmly believe that was a poor smokescreen on his part.

Eagles modded to outstall stalls? Interesting idea, though I'd be more confident if we had more Wings in there. Isn't it extremely likely to get outrushed before being able to stall? You'd be glad with just one Wings in 10 cards, while they are likely draw to a deflag in the meantime

I think Wiz tested Vader and results were pretty good. Vader is a great deck unless they pack RT, although it might beat even that with some strategic play and proper draws. Right now, I have more faith in Vader and strategic play than in drawing Wings in time
Feel free to try to persuade me otherwise though :P

Stupid ctrl/backspace.  I have been doing some testing with Vader myself, and I must say, I'm not overly impressed with the results (this may simply be due to differences in luck, I'm still going to make my case :p).

I agree that I would like more than 4 Wings in a 41 card deck, but the fact is that there is still a 70% probability of drawing 1 Wings in the first 10 cards (3-4 turns).  While the odds of drawing 2 are not great, the odds of drawing 2 within the first 15 cards (7-8 turns) is still 50%.  So even if they are able to draw and play a Deflagration, there is still a decent chance that you will be able to draw another Wings.Any deck that they play will not have both Reverse Time and Deflagration.  Any deck that they run will have, at most, 2 Deflagrations (assuming Grabows), unless they go with a Lava Golem Immbow (which they played against us last round, and I don't see that happening).  The Grabows need the  quanta in order to evolve the Graboids, so there is no fear of RT there, and the massive repeatable CC that this deck packs can hold any Grabow at bay.Vader fails against Earth's stalls.  Period.  The Immorta (

http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,24274.msg331854#msg331854)l and The Basilisk (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,24209.msg331007#msg331007) are both too much for Vader and wins can be declared almost from turn one.  Wingdingz wins every game with The Immortal (41>40), and is a coinflip with The Basilisk (41=41).The Steals that Wingdingz packs help immensely.  Whether it's a stolen Fog Shield to slow down the Grabow while you're waiting for Wings, or an Arsenic for ramping damage, the Steal is obviously to our advantage here.The damage that Wingdingz can do, while not huge like can achieved by some other decks, is surprisingly consistent.  Even one Gargoyle and one OE can reduce HP to the desperation point rather quickly.This deck is not hurt by EQ.  The huge number of pends ensures that you always have some either on the field or in your hand about to be played.  With Vader, that deck can be halted in its tracks with EQ.Concession:  Vader deals much better with poison than Wingdingz does, although poison certainly does not mean game over for Wingdingz.[/list]Ok, case made   If the team feels comfortable going with Vader, I won't push it.  I will, however, reserve the right to say "I told you so" should it be the wrong choice   All in all, though, the win is obviously what's important here, not whether or not I'm right in my figuring. 

[Mithcairion]

Jay, what is it, specifically, that scares you about your deck?  Is it just Discord/BH, or something more than that?

[TheonlyrealBeef]

Vader not beating immortal? I beat him 3 out of 4 times, last 4 cards being 3 crusaders in the losing one.

"Pics or it didn't happen!"
Well here ya go:

Key is to not endow the stiletto immediatly, will test against The Basilisk now :P

Edit:
Won 2 out of 2 against the basilisk without even being close to defeat. Choosing the moment to endow wisely helps, don't do it too early or you'll lack in damage potential, don't do it too late or you won't have enough time to chip away enough health for victory.

[Mithcairion]

Well, Torb, obviously your pics>my points   I would still be concerned about the relative number of cards played by The Immortal in your ss, but still, I can't argue with results.  Either way, if this gives us the best shot, we should definitely roll with it.  Just make sure to win your matchup with and hopefully they pack some Wings so we can get some more

[TheonlyrealBeef]

Well, Torb, obviously your pics>my points   I would still be concerned about the relative number of cards played by The Immortal in your ss, but still, I can't argue with results.  Either way, if this gives us the best shot, we should definitely roll with it.  Just make sure to win your matchup with and hopefully they pack some Wings so we can get some more

I'm afraid they won't pack Wings, but we'll definetly salvage and keep some if they do

Since your deck will probably only work once, regardless (after that they'll be prepared :p), it doesn't hurt getting to know more of their vault first.

[Mithcairion]

Well, Torb, obviously your pics>my points   I would still be concerned about the relative number of cards played by The Immortal in your ss, but still, I can't argue with results.  Either way, if this gives us the best shot, we should definitely roll with it.  Just make sure to win your matchup with and hopefully they pack some Wings so we can get some more

I'm afraid they won't pack Wings, but we'll definetly salvage and keep some if they do

Since your deck will probably only work once, regardless (after that they'll be prepared :p), it doesn't hurt getting to know more of their vault first.

Good point about only working once.  Also, mrpaper and I ran a test of Vader vs. Immortal modded and the only reason that he won (he was playing Immortal) was because he made it to be a perfect counter to Vader.  Even then, it was still relatively close (until mrpaper Stoneskin-ed 3 times right before I would deck out).  Long story short, I'm sold.  All in on Vader and I like our odds.

[Jaymanfu]

ya I guess, and only having 5 creatures too. but if you guys think it'll do fine I have np playing it

[TheonlyrealBeef]

Some ideas that popped my mind for future matchups:


We lost all matches against Entropy so far, since Light is a mess, and we haven't faced Fire yet, Entropy is our worst enemy so far. I built a counter idea for next time that might work, based on the Water vs Death matchup, where Discord failed:

by TheonlyrealBeef

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

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5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5ul 5ul 5ul 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 622 622 8pu

Chain Dim Shields, play Dragons, and Fractal them for the win. Quick testing looked promising, as long as they don't pack Shields + excessive CC (Pandebonium anyone?) or excessive PC (BE ftl).


Though we probably have the best winning record against Aether of all teams, we must stay on guard, once their vault is significantly larger, they might become unstoppable, so I want to end them quick. Here's my idea for the next time we meet them:

by TheonlyrealBeef

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

5li 5li 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uo 5uo 5ur 5ur 5us 5us 5us 5us 5us 5us 5uu 5uu 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 8pq

Why? Because their decks seem to lack damage output, and I doubt Higs will see this coming

Any reason why my logic horribly fails? :P

[mrpaper]

The entropy deck could use a ls or even a black nymph in case they find ways to hurt us anyway.  I like the aether counter since aether is so slow.. and miracles needs time to be effective!