Dark/Aether?

[Parabol]

I don't know if anyone's done this before, but it strikes me that dark/aether could be quite powerful.

Mark of Darkness
6x Devourers/Pests
4x Improved Steal
2x Dim Shield
2x Phase Spider/Recluse
6x Parallel Universe
10x Aether Pillar/Tower

Darkness will never defeat rainbow using a devourer strategy, but the idea of this deck is to get a devourer out following the second turn, whilst you're building up your aether with hopefully a dim shield in hand.  Once the devourer's out, they will multiply fast as dark quanta begins to flow your way, and you can start stealing their pillars (or particularly troublesome artifacts if TOTALLY necessary).  With your shield up you should have time to get some Parallel Universes, leading to, potentially, 12 devourers completely paralysing them.

It definitely needs some tweaking, and I don't think it'd ever be as strong as pure dark.  Maybe a larger deck could fare well? 6x Dim Shield 6 x Phase Recluse 6x PU 18x Aether Pillars? That way depending on the draw you can choose between an intimidating Gemini-style offence or a stranglehold on their quanta.

Just trying to play with some of the deck combos no-one ever thinks of trying here

[Scaredgirl]

Looks to me you might have a problem with enemy crowd control. One Otyugh would eat everything you put on the table.

Don't you need earth to get those Devourers in hiding?

[Parabol]

Looks to me you might have a problem with enemy crowd control. One Otyugh would eat everything you put on the table.

Don't you need earth to get those Devourers in hiding?

Yep .

I think it'd have a problem with Holy Flash too.

[harpoonedfish]

Maybe try fiddling around with novas? 6 could give you all the earth quantum you need.

I don't know, i can't figure out a way to make novas effective... but maybe you could?

[Scaredgirl]

Maybe try fiddling around with novas? 6 could give you all the earth quantum you need.

I don't know, i can't figure out a way to make novas effective... but maybe you could?

Take 6 Novas to get 6 earth quantum? That's not very effective now is it? You know.. filling up card slots and all..

Most logical choice would be to take mark of Earth (old trick) because it guarantees 1 earth quantum each turn. This way you will get those Devourers into hiding with a higher probability. You could also take some cheap cards from earth like Protect Artifact or something.

Other option would be to take 3 earth Pillars.

Last option would be to forget earth quantum and pray that the opponent doesn't have or cannot use crowd control.

[harpoonedfish]

Take 6 Novas to get 6 earth quantum? That's not very effective now is it? You know.. filling up card slots and all..

Most logical choice would be to take mark of Earth (old trick) because it guarantees 1 earth quantum each turn. This way you will get those Devourers into hiding with a higher probability. You could also take some cheap cards from earth like Protect Artifact or something.

Other option would be to take 3 earth Pillars.

Last option would be to forget earth quantum and pray that the opponent doesn't have or cannot use crowd control.

Well see he doesn't have any Dark pillars, so mark of earth would mean he couldn't play any devourers.

3 earth pillars would work too though

I was thinking with novas though he could fiddle around and find some use of the other quantum (whether it be faster devourer/aether output or some other cards)

[Scaredgirl]

Take 6 Novas to get 6 earth quantum? That's not very effective now is it? You know.. filling up card slots and all..

Most logical choice would be to take mark of Earth (old trick) because it guarantees 1 earth quantum each turn. This way you will get those Devourers into hiding with a higher probability. You could also take some cheap cards from earth like Protect Artifact or something.

Other option would be to take 3 earth Pillars.

Last option would be to forget earth quantum and pray that the opponent doesn't have or cannot use crowd control.

Well see he doesn't have any Dark pillars, so mark of earth would mean he couldn't play any devourers.

3 earth pillars would work too though

I was thinking with novas though he could fiddle around and find some use of the other quantum (whether it be faster devourer/aether output or some other cards)

Ah, yes... I didn't see that. My deck reading skills are very limited unless there's a picture.

Then I would say that this deck definitely needs Dark Pillars. I don't think mark of Darkness is enough to pay for 6 x Devourers and 4 x Steal. That's 20 dark quantum is total so if would take 20 turns. And it's important to get those Devourers on the table early in the game as fast as possible, which is impossible with only mark.

[harpoonedfish]

Then I would say that this deck definitely needs Dark Pillars. I don't think mark of Darkness is enough to pay for 6 x Devourers and 4 x Steal. That's 20 dark quantum is total so if would take 20 turns. And it's important to get those Devourers on the table early in the game as fast as possible, which is impossible with only mark.

devourers give you 1 dark quantum a turn.

[Parabol]

The reason I thought of aether as the partner to dark is because of dim shield...although I suppose you'd need to draw it early.

Perhaps 6x Devourers, 3x Steal, 12 aether towers, 3 Dim Shields, 3 Lightning, 6 PU?

I'll try it in the trainer and let you know how it goes

EDIT: Only just found out that dark starts with some aether cards! Nice.  Well, I quickly realised I had no bloody attacking creatures in my deck...whoops.  PU might compensate for that, or I might increase towers to 15 and put in 3 recluses.  I think the latter.  Also removing one thunderbolt for electrocutor.

EDIT 2: Awesome.  It works at level 3.  But I suspect this is much more down to phase shield, lightning and lobotomiser than the draining of devourers.

EDIT 3: Capable of defeating most top 50 decks, of varying kinds.  Devourers work less well against the rainbows, but that's where aether comes in, and is why I gave aether the dominant role.  Darkness is really more of an optional side-deck that runs quietly by itself.  I put a drain life in.
Final verdict: Very fun to play and insanely satisfying when it comes together, with around 6 devourers on the fourth turn (through a combination of PUs and the pests themselves).  Definitely not a good deck to grind with, but potentially a nice PvP deck to throw people off - against a straight aether deck I suspect this would win, given a decent starting hand.

[Scaredgirl]

Then I would say that this deck definitely needs Dark Pillars. I don't think mark of Darkness is enough to pay for 6 x Devourers and 4 x Steal. That's 20 dark quantum is total so if would take 20 turns. And it's important to get those Devourers on the table early in the game as fast as possible, which is impossible with only mark.

devourers give you 1 dark quantum a turn.

Yes, they do.

But I think it's important to get those Devourers on the table as fast as possible. With no Pillars and only mark of Darkness, you cannot pay for Devourers (2 quantum) until round 3 which might be too late.

I really liked this idea of having tons of Devourers on the table who drain all the quantum from your opponent.

I did a deck with..
- all kinds of Darkness cards and pillars
- 6 Explosion (mark of Fire)
- 3 Twin Universe (+couple of Aether Towers)
- 3 Lightning

Idea was to destroy or steal all towers the opponent plays, use Lightning on his Otyughs etc. and use Devourers to drain him. It was pretty good against level 3 but didn't do that well against top-50. Supernova was a real problem. It was also really slow.

[Site Administrator]

Mark of Entropy
6x Devourers/Pests
4x Improved Steal
2x Dim Shield
2x Phase Spider/Recluse
6x Parallel Universe
10x Aether Pillar/Tower
6x Supernovae

Although, that's not really a dark/aether deck, it's dark/aether/entropy. Even more rainbow-ed if you add creature control.

Drain life maybe?

[wckz]

Try changing it to dim field? Supernovas and devourers give it alot of fuel.