A guide for beginners.

[DarkStelth52]

From all the times I've played elements, i've pretty much learned the recipe for success when it comes to dark decks. To often do people undermine the power of vampires, and this guide will harness those powers very effectively. It's a quick, easy, and cheap way to kick of your elements game. If played correctly, this deck should give a 4:1 win:loss ratio. In other words, this guide will make you a boss.   


1) Pick Dark as your sign

2) Remove the dagger, all parasites, and aether cards. (excluding spark + one pillar).

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

4sa 4sa 4sa 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5ul 5um 5um 5um 5um 5uo 5up 5up 5up 5uq 5us 5us 5us 61o 61p 8pt

3) Sell all of these at the bazaar

4) Then purchase 4 minor vamps

5) Place these into your deck, and then remove all of the quantum pillars and the aether pillar

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5ul 5um 5um 5um 5um 5uo 5up 5up 5up 5uq 5us 5us 5us 5ut 5ut 5ut 5ut 61p 8pt

6) Sell those cards

7) You now have the basic vampire deck

8 ) Then go and complete the first, second, and third quest

9) Then take the money, and buy another vamp

10) Add that vampire to your deck, and remove the spark

11) Sell the spark

12) Buy one last vamp

13) Place this in your deck, and remove one obsidian pillar

14) You now have the real deck

15) Go and complete both the 4th and 5th quests

16) Now for the fun part, PVP! Keep on doing PVP 1 until you complete both the 150 score, and the 500 score quest. After that, you are home free to  start doing whatever you want! And if you're struggling with the deck, change it to suit your playing style!

Final Product:

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5ul 5um 5um 5um 5um 5uo 5up 5up 5up 5uq 5us 5us 5us 5ut 5ut 5ut 5ut 5ut 5ut 8pt

Strategy:
,
This deck is almost invincible when it comes to counters. The hardest matches for you, will be those against rush decks, IE. immolation decks. However, they can be dealt with. Remember: Devs first, THEN vamps. Also, don't forget to save your steals until you're opponent plays something that's either really good, or something that hurts your deck (firewall).

Thank you for reading this guide, and any feedback would be much appreciated!

[bogtro]

***TRIALS RESPONSE***

Your deck lacks sufficient offense, which will probably mean that it will be easily overrun by rush decks. Immorushes or Grabbows will prove the most difficult to beat, since they can put out very fast offense that will kill you well before you can significantly damage them, while also producing "dead" quanta that will negate the effect of your devourers. It also looks to produce too much quanta, which will leave you with a lot of quanta and not much to use it with.

Minor Vampires are a generally weak card that is really only effective in mass, making them popular targets for Mitosis (http://elementscommunity.org/wiki/cards-life/mitosis-mitosis/) or Fractal (http://elementscommunity.org/wiki/cards-aether/fractal-fractal/). These are also typically paired with Devourers in order to both supply the necessary quanta for the vampires and to lock down the opponent. These combos form the basis for Pestal (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php?topic=28504.0), a deck intended to not allow the opponent to play anything, with the mass of vampires dealing with anything that may come out before the lockdown.

Since mono-darkness decks cannot produce Minor Vampires in mass, they are weak and probably shouldn't be in the deck. I would suggest removing them in favor of 2 devourers and 4 dragons. Since you don't have as much quanta influx anymore, I'd suggest removing a Drain Life in favor of a second Nightfall, giving you more chances to draw one.

by bogtro

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5ul 5ul 5ul 5ul 5ul 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5uo 5up 5up 5up 5uq 5uq 5us 5us 8pt

This deck provides significantly more offense, while devourers can slow down the opponent's deck.

I did some quick testing in PvP1 with this deck. It went 5-0, gaining 460 electrum (although I have a high score, which means that you will likely get even more electrum).

A final word about farming: Although the rewards in PvP1 are large, as your score gets higher, they will get smaller. At the point where they hover around 100 electrum, you should change to AI3 farming. Although the rewards are smaller per game, the games are significantly faster, and you know what to expect from the decks. PvP1 games can take well over 5 minutes, while AI3 games take around 1 minute.