Strategy

[Mithcairion]

  Jaymanfu vs.  Zeru

Round 1:

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5l8 5l8 5ll 5ll 5ll 5ll 5lm 5lm 5lm 5mq 5mq 5mq 5uk 5uk 5up 5up 5up 5ur 5ur 5ur 5v2 5v2 606 606 606 606 606 7jt 7jt 7um

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4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vd 4vd 4vd 4vf 4vf 4vf 4vf 4vf 4vf 4vi 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vl 4vl 4vl 50u 50u 50u 50u 50u 50u 50uRound 2:

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4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 52q 593 593 593 593 5rk 5rk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5ul 5ul 5ul 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5up 5uu 5uv 61q 61q

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4vh 4vh 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vq 4vq 4vq 4vq 4vq 50u 50u 52q 590 5c1 5f6 5f6 5f9 5f9 5f9 5fa 5fa 5fa 5og 77g 77g 77gTo this point, Entropy has been our Kryptonite, our one true weakness.  In both rounds they have evaded our quanta denial using Nova and there is no reason for them not to do the same for a third time.  This obviously poses a problem because it is our best way to slow them down while they hack away at us using Discord.  Ideally, we would be able to protect ourselves from both the damage and quanta denial of Discord while we were able to set up our offense.  For the first time, we have a pattern of how to do this well from water, as mono>Discord. 

Likely salvages from Round 2:

Max 12:

4 Ice Shield2 Morning Star4 Miracle6 Ice Bolt
Max 12:

4 Dune Scorpion6 Sundial6 Time Pendulum
Max 12:

6 Nova4 Earthquake6 Devourer3 Acceleration5 Wings2 Owl's Eye
While their middling 4-4 record should  have rendered this past round more of a loss, the event card afforded them the opportunity to not be hurt too much and only have to discard a net of 12 cards.  Entropy being what it is, they can go either route and either keep what decks they have intact, or start branching off into some decks with new motifs.

Entropy's Matchups:
 :  Fire has successfully stalled and rushed entropy, so their heads may be spinning a little bit on this one.  Pandebonium wouldn't be a surprise here, given fire's joy for Immolation, although fire has taken a good counter to it both of the first two matches.
 :  Wouldn't be surprised at all to see death go with their Pandebonium here and entropy probably wouldn't be surprised to see it either.  If entropy has a Quintagon in their vault, I'm guessing now would be the time we see it.
 :  Specifically, Spike.  He loves to use Dune Scorpions and I'm sure entropy will recognize this, so they could very well go with an Antimatter/Dissipation shield stall to take advantage of the poison/Antimatter bug.
 :  Who do we root for?!  Last time they met was an Immolation/Phoenix vs. Grabquake matchup and both could very well end up playing something similar again.  If entropy doesn't go for Pandebonium vs. fire, they could very well use it here.  Voodoo dolls is also a possibility here, as aether has the natural immunity to Pandemonium.  Very tough matchup for entropy here.
 :  Another problematic lineup for entropy.  Possibly Flaming Cats here, although air's CC heavy approach may discourage that tact.  Most likely would be a mono with lots of dragons and Demons with Discord, of course. 
 :  Maybe light will have learned that they need lots of quanta.  If entropy expects this, a Nymph/Dissipation shield stall is very likely, since light's only counter to it is Firestall.  Mono rush is also a possibility here. 
 :  Nothing to see here, move along.  In the irony of ironies, this could very well be a Discord/Black Hole deck.  Another possibility is Grabcord, but that deck is strong enough that I think it will be used elsewhere.

Zeru has shown a penchant thus far for using unexpected and unconventional entropy decks when compared to the whole library of what entropy is capable of.  With the possible salvage of Dune Scorpions, though, I could see that being a very real possibility for Zeru to run here.  While we cannot predict with any reliability what entropy will play against us, this is a deck that they can easily make from their vault and salvages that would do very well against us:

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4vc 4vd 4vd 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vl 4vl 4vl 50u 50u 50u 50u 50u 50u 5rk 5rk 5rk 5rk 5rt 5rt 5rt 5rt 6u2 6u2 6u2 6u2 6ve 6ve[/list]

[Jaymanfu]

just went 6-10 vs the dune scorp deck, seemed to be a lot of luck involved on both sides but I needed more of the luck for him to either get no dune scorp or no discord... but mostly the no dune scorp lol

[Mithcairion]

  mrpaper vs.  Svenningen

This is our first meeting with fire this war, so we really don't have any intel yet as to what approach they will take towards us.  As I see it, they have two main options to use against us; firestall and immofire.

Firestall

Pros:

Sanctuary helps to protect them from our quanta denial.Multiple important permanents makes Stealing essential parts impractical.Massive CC makes playing creature rush impractical.
Cons:

Can be slow to set up.  If it can be slowed further, it can be stopped altogether.Current incarnations are too reliant on Sanctuarys, which can be out-damaged rather easily.Earthquake devastates this deck.

Immorush

Pros:

Immolation gives protection against one of our greatest strengths, Devourer.Phoenix is a natural component to the Immorush, and supernaturally CC resistant.Tremendous speed and flexibility.
Cons:

Can be very unstable.  'Failure to launch' is not uncommon with these builds.Extremely vulnerable to Reverse Time.  Once the burst of quanta is used, this deck is extremely slow.

Likely salvages from Round 2:

Max 12:

6 Immolation3 Lava Golem6 Phoenix
Max 24:

6 Poison2 Skull Shield2 Arsenic3 Discord2 Maxwell's Demon6 Abomination4 Earthquake4 Hematite Golem4 Acceleration5 Liquid Shadow2 Vampire Stiletto

Here again we have a case where a team has managed to break even in salvage/discard after a round.  With this in mind, they may be choose to alter existing deck archetypes rather than keeping existing decks intact.  One important thing to note is that not one but two (all?) of their firestall decks lost in the previous round, meaning that it is likely, although not assured, that they will be forced to consolodate and run only one firestall, thus reducing our chances of seeing it.

Fire's Matchups:
 :  So far the pattern has been stall, Novarush, X.  Fire could well learn from water and go quanta heavy mono here, as they're one of the few that can do it well.
 :  I'm guessing a variation of Fractix, since it came so close to working in Round 1.  MPs are all but immune to any CC that aether would bring against it.
 :  Used a mono in their only matchup so far, where fire tried to pull a fast one with Discord.  Since firestall>waterstall, my guess is that is the play here.
 :  Possibly the Discord deck used vs. water last round.  Definitely not their best effort, and doesn't need to be, given gravity's struggles.
 :  Last round featured possibly the scariest deck from fire yet.  I don't see them using it on life yet again, but it is possible.  Firestall is possible, although I think straight Immorush is more likely.
 :  We know fire has Wings in their vault, and I'm guessing that is they direction they go here.  Wings counters so much of what earth can do, it just makes too much sense not to run it.  Most likely paired with dragons.
 :  Reverse time is scary to the Immorush, so if they do rush, a quanta heavy rush is expected.  A very dangerous matchup for fire, as Jen-I is a formidable opponent.

I admit, I fear Maxwell's Demon more than I probably should, but that is due to all but one of our killing creatures being susceptible to it.  Unfortunately for us, Maxwell's Demon pairs very well with Fire Shield making a CC nightmare if it's not dealt with.  With the salvages of Maxwell's Demon, Discords, and Abominations, they can make a very formidable entropy/fire duo that looks like this:

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4vd 4vd 4vl 4vl 4vl 5f5 5f5 5f9 5f9 5f9 5f9 5f9 5f9 5fa 5fc 5fc 5fc 5fc 5fc 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 61p 61p 61p 61p 61p 61pAlso, this is the scary deck I mentioned before.  It has Immos for speed, EQs for stall, and Lava Golems with Phoenixes for pain:

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593 593 593 593 5f6 5f6 5f9 5f9 5f9 5f9 5f9 5f9 5fa 5fa 5fa 5fa 5fa 5fc 5fc 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 61p 61p 61p 61p 61p 61p

[Onizuka]

Hah, the funny thing is, me and Suxerz tested against the 2nd deck. I think we played 2-3 games against it, and I won each time. (I played the mono dark). Our current deck pretty much ran through it, Drain lifing the golems before they became a problem, vamping the phoenixes, stealing the pends for additional coverage from EQ+Slow that deck down.  With only 4 EQs, it can't handle the amount of pillars/pends we can bring out. Playing 2 at a time gives us another drain life to use, assuming we had 0 darkness quanta. And since we're going mono, they can't deny us precious 2ndary quanta. We didn't get to test against pure immophoenix though, and since they've made their immophoenix decks control heavy, I doubt we'd be able to take the win anyway since the deck only uses 3 dragons for power.

And as long as they don't draw/pack reflective shield in their firestall, it shouldn't be a problem. I doubt they'll think we'll drain life them first game, and thus keep their shield in hand to let us at least get a 2-1 loss(which is still bad).


I'll try to test against that maxwell demon deck sometime tonight/tomorrow

[suxerz]

Ninja'd by oni.. -.-'

In your opinion, what are the odds that they will have reflective shield in their firestall? They have 1 in every firestall deck that they used so far. I think that they will pack 1 in this round too, but I would like to know what do you think.

I'm incline to add 1 light pends and 1 reflective shield in that deck.

[Mithcairion]

Well, good to know that people are reading these and they're not in vain   The odds are essentially 100% that they will run with a Reflective Shield if they run a firestall.  Whether or not they feel that there is no way we would pack one of our own and wouldn't bother with one is a risk that we simply cannot afford to take when decks cannot be changed.

With regard to your idea to add 1 light pendulum, I think a Nova/Reflective Shield may be better off, since Torb will be using the Vader Sader.

[suxerz]

We already used all 14 of our novae. If we wan too salvage another one, we need to decide another card to loose (probably devourer. Nuuuu..). Also, we still have 1 spare light pillar and pends. However, nova is faster than light pends/pillar.

[Mithcairion]

  Theonlyrealbeef vs.  hrmmm

Round 2:

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55q 55q 55t 55t 562 562 562 562 562 562 5uu 5uu 5v0 5v0 5v0 5v0 5v0 5v0 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606

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592 592 592 592 593 593 593 593 593 593 594 594 594 594 594 5li 5li 5li 5li 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mq 5mqPerfect deck counter chosen by us last round, and perfectly played by Oni.  Poor hrmmm draws us for a second time in a row.  Having looked at the deck we have lined up I fully approve, although I will still go into my usual analysis.

Likely salvages from Round 2 (Max 18):

5 Poison2 Arsenic3 Bone Wall4 Reverse Time6 GotP2 Discord5 Reverse Time6 Abomination

Another brutal round for light.  Their net was -42 cards for the round, which puts them in a very tight spot now.  As it was, they threw out two decks last round that were simply terrible.  It wouldn't surprise me in the least if we start seeing suicide decks from them soon, possibly even this round.  That being said, we cannot expect us to be the beneficiaries of such a gesture, as the odds are not good and we are too strong at the moment for a team to consider giving us free cards.

Light's Matchups:
 :  Light will most likely go 0-3 here no matter what they throw at death, although I expect their best, since they're 0-2 against death.  Blessed Chargers with a side of Sanctuaries or Miracles sounds likely here.
 :  RoHope makes sense here, since coinich takes this match.  Ramps easily, and hurts the multitude of life's creatures.
 :  Another team that light is 0-2 against.  If they were smart, this would be a Vader Sader deck, as the flying buffed Stilettos bypass air's best shield.  Instead, I suspect some sort of light-bow.
 :  They saw the Immorush work once, and may go back to the well.  Another possibility is Quintagon, if they have it available to them.
 :  Kinda like watching two younger kids fight.  You know they can't hurt you, but they might hurt each other.  Arsensader is possible here, and considering what is available to them, may be their best play.
 :  If they think they won't see Pandemonium, they could go Luci-Vu again.  If not, most likely a Dune Scorpion deck, as it only requires one hit to work and has enough stall/quanta protection to get set up.
 :  I expect poison.  They simply don't have the damage potential to be able to either keep up with earth's stalls or outrush their damage when they rush.  If they run a suicide deck, this will most likely be it.

Light is in a tough way.  While I expect them to bring their best against us, right now their best isn't very good.  Our biggest threat would be the firestall, but with Torb running Vader Sader we have a very good chance of outrushing any stall they throw against us.  Our biggest threat would be a Dune Scorpion deck that featured Reverse Time/Eternity. 

[Mithcairion]

We already used all 14 of our novae. If we wan too salvage another one, we need to decide another card to loose (probably devourer. Nuuuu..). Also, we still have 1 spare light pillar and pends. However, nova is faster than light pends/pillar.

In that case I would prefer the Light Pendulum be used, since it provides more darkness quanta over what would end up being a longer game.

[Onizuka]

I'm a little torn on our deck for light right now. I can't think of something better, but I just have a feeling someone on their team will say something like this:

"If Darkness thinks we'll run a stall against them, then they'll bring their voodoo deck. If they bring their voodoo deck, our dune scorp deck is best."

After seeing us win with something RT prone, they might have enough sense to -actually- bring RT.

[TheonlyrealBeef]

I'm a little torn on our deck for light right now. I can't think of something better, but I just have a feeling someone on their team will say something like this:

"If Darkness thinks we'll run a stall against them, then they'll bring their voodoo deck. If they bring their voodoo deck, our dune scorp deck is best."

After seeing us win with something RT prone, they might have enough sense to -actually- bring RT.

They have this deck with Eternities in it, but it failed against Vader in testing thanks to Steals :D

Also, Fire deck updated into this:

by TheonlyrealBeef

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

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5lg 5mq 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5ul 5ul 5ul 5uo 5up 5up 5up 5us 5us 5us 5us 5us 5us 5uu 5uu 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 8pt

[Mithcairion]

  Malignant vs.  edunavas

Round 1:

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5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5ul 5ul 5ul 5ul 5ul 5um 5ur 606 606 606 606 606 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 621 621 621 7te 7te 7te 7um 7um 7um

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5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c8 5c8 5c8 5c8 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 7ae 7ae 7ae 7ae 7ae 7ae 7af 7af 7af 7af 7af 7akLife's greatest strength is also it's greatest weakness; it's creatures.  We used this to our advantage in Round 1 by simply stopping their creatures cold.  After watching us fall to adrenaline in the previous round, I wouldn't doubt it if they try and run a similar deck against us.  However, if they look at what deck we played against them in Round 1, they may well run a poison deck against us, either via Momentum/Forest Scorpion/Adrenaline, or Arsenic/Poison/Forest Scorpion.

Likely salvages from Round 2 (Max 12):

3 Bone Wall5 Fractal6 Dimensional Shield4 Lightning

Even when life wins, they lose.  While life won three matches this round, they were only able to salvage two of them due to being forced to use a sub for one of them.  With that in mind, they managed to net them -49 cards from the previous round.  Unless they find something truly useful in these salvages (the shields?) I fully expect any and all salvage from these matches to be converted.

Life's Matchups:
 :  Lost to Scrambled Shriekers last round.  Mitodragons may be a good way to go if they expect stall this round, which I would, considering what earth is good at.
 :  They took a poison deck against fire last time and almost pulled it out.  I could see them doing the same thing again, seeing as how Skull Shield>all fire creatures and Graboids.
 :  Another possible fit for Mitodragons.  They could also try Fractalfrogs with a side of Adrenaline if they expect a stall.
 :  Brutal matchup for life.  Wings stops almost all of life's creatures cold and the CC devastates them.  Life may try a FFQ deck here, as it is their best source of fliers.
 :  Two devtals in a row vs. life.  If life has any Sanctuaries in their vault, I expect to see them this round.  That being said, the only thing I can see if they run that would be a Thorn Carapace/Sanctuary/Heal stall.
 :  I know there is a rivalry here, so this will get more attention from life than maybe it should.  This would be a good spot for Quinta-X(-gon, -trice, -frog, -pion).  That is, IF they have it available to them in their vault.
 :  Another tough matchup, although doable for life.  I expect the Healbolt from life here, since it is immune to Reverse Time, and has the firepower necessary to OHK Dune Scorpions.

As for their matchup with us, I expect it to be Adrenaline frogs or Scorpions, probably with a side of poison and healing in either deck.  It is also possible for them to use a lifebow, but after seeing how much we struggled vs. Adrenaline last round, it makes more sense for them to run Adrenaline.  In either case, our selected deck works very well for us, since Reverse Time and Nightmare freeze both decks in their tracks.