Lava Destroyer speed deck (mostly t50 farm)

[dragonsdemesne]

by dragonsdemesne

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4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 55q 5og 713 77g 77g 77g 7ae 7dm 7dp 7dp 7dp 7dp 7dp 7dp 7dq 7dq 7dq 7dq 7jp 7jp 7jp 7jp 7jp 7jv 7mt 7tb 8pm

This probably isn't original at all, but I've been working on this for farming t50, since my rainbow deck is slow, and takes 5-10 minutes to beat even a farm, though it rarely loses.  This deck, while it has a slightly lower win % in the top 50 than an FG rainbow, can play a game in 2-3 minutes.  A typical game is about 7-9 turns, and my record is 4 turns, which I've probably done at least a dozen times, and I've had 5 turn kills even when the AI fought back with things like Firestorm on a destroyer to kill it.

I've changed things around a couple times, but this is the current list I have going.  Also, I must say that the original version of this deck was based on this: http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,23889.0.html

4x Nova: I haven't tried with more or less than 4, but this seems about right.  It is deliberately unupgraded so that I can use Earth mark.
1x Momentum: This is experimental, hence the unupgraded version.  Dimensional Shield is one of the worst things that can happen to this deck.
1x Fog Shield: I'll upgrade it once I'm richer, but if you don't have the  to cast it as soon as you get it, it means you're screwed anyway.
1x Flesh Recluse: Best death creature for its cost
3x Elite Graboid: Best earth creature for its cost, also uses your time quanta.  (hence no time cards, so you have quanta for evolving)
1x Giant Frog: The link I quoted used Forest Spirit in this slot, but I find this works better.  I had two of these at one point, not sure which is the right number, but I took one out to try other things.
1x Explosion: For general purpose... exploding of things.
6x Cremation: Duh.  The quanta.
4x Lava Destroyer: I don't have more than 4 upgraded, but 4 seems to be about right anyway.  It's definitely not too many, but I don't know whether 1-2 more would be better.
5x Ray of Light: I won most of these from FGs, and since they are strictly better than Photon... why not? Once I'm richer, I'll turn all the RoLs into Damselflies, Gnome Gemfinders, or maybe Ball Lightnings.
1x Improved Blessing: Just trying this out for now; seems to work alright here.
1x Damselfly: All I've got for now.  Eventually I want 6 0-cost creatures other than RoL, either the 2/1 Damselfly, the 1/2 earth-producing gnome, or the 5/0 Ball Lightning.
1x Vampiric Dagger: Testing this out as well.  I used to have Longsword for awhile, then Gavel, and now this.  When I added the dagger, I took out my (unupgraded) Lycanthrope due to them both using darkness.

Biggest challenges:
Rewind/Eternity: Without pillars, this is extra bad
Certain shields, particularly Dimensional Shield: Slow the deck down too much, though with Explosion or some luck it can still be done.  Fire Buckler can be a problem too if gotten early, but note that evolving your graboid will heal it when it becomes a shrieker, which helps there.
Excess Healing: The deck can handle an SoG or two, but a full field of bonkers healing permanents and a shield is bad news.

Basically I want to make the deck even faster.  If there are any simple ways to increase defense/healing without compromising speed, I'm all for that as well.

Some cards I'm considering:
More explosions: for shields mostly
Chaos Power: I don't have any yet, but it's probably as good as Improved Blessing, and I'm not using Entropy currently
Mind Flayer: To use water/aether quanta.  I had this in before, but it's a rather hit and miss card; sometimes it shines, other times it's crap
Lycanthrope: I might put one back in once I upgrade one
Precognition: To shrink the deck size, though it would have to be upgraded, and even then might eat up graboid evolving quanta.
I tried using some shards, but they didn't seem to help the deck any.  Either I'll win too fast for them to matter, or I'll get totally locked out by shields, etc, and it doesn't matter if I have them or not.
 
It is also capable of beating ai5 on occasion, but it isn't particularly reliable there.  I've killed an ai5 in 7 turns a few times :p  Usually, though, you get the ai5 down somewhere under 50hp but then die once it gets quanta and plays dragons and crap.

[dragonsdemesne]

I don't know why every time I post a deck image it does this, but there is no 31st card and the mark is earth.

[pikachufan2164]

The blank card at the end is the mark code; the current version of the deck image maker on the forums doesn't support it, so you'll need to fill in the mark in the deck tag as follows:

Code: [Select]

[deck mark=Earth]4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 55q 5og 713 77g 77g 77g 7ae 7dm 7dp 7dp 7dp 7dp 7dp 7dp 7dq 7dq 7dq 7dq 7jp 7jp 7jp 7jp 7jp 7jv 7mt 7tb 8pm[/deck]Whether you want to leave the mark code in there is up to you, but I prefer to include it in my deck codes.

As for the deck, it's probably a better idea to have a second Explosion instead of an Unstoppable, as it clears through shields for all of your creatures (Lava Golem rushes outspeed Hope, and the other Immaterial shields are only damage reduction ones).

For your Immobait, there are a few better options than Ray of Light -- Ball Lightning (does a better end damage burst, and you can also buff it with Chaos Power if you like) and Gnome Gemfinder (gets you extra quanta so that you can do things like run a mark and take some unupped Phoenixes instead of Destroyers).

[willng3]

You pretty much managed to do everything correctly, just with a few minor errors.

Firstly, for the code.
[deck mark=MARK author=willng3][/deck]
Change where it says MARK to either earth, Earth, or EARTH.

Secondly, that blank card is because Zanzarino added a feature which automatically changes your mark when importing your code.  Right now there is no way to update the deck image generator with those changes.  If the ??? is that big of a concern to you, then just delete the last set of three letters/numbers from your code before hitting that post button.

Now for the deck.  I like it.  I like it a lot actually.  You may want to consider changing a Graboid to something else, maybe a 5th Lava Destroyer.  Right now you're using a lot of which is currently generated only by your mark and whichever Nova/Cremation you happen to draw.  From my experience with these types of decks, even 2 Graboids is pushing it. 

Aside from that I can't see much else to improve.  I would personally switch the Rays for Ball Lightning just for finishing the opponent faster at the end, but that's really not such a big deal; Blessing could be swapped for Chaos Power in that case.

Overall:  Great job.

[dragonsdemesne]

re: mark code: Okay, at least I know why now :p

As for the deck, it's probably a better idea to have a second Explosion instead of an Unstoppable, as it clears through shields for all of your creatures (Lava Golem rushes outspeed Hope, and the other Immaterial shields are only damage reduction ones).

That's a fair point.  It'll have to be a deflagration until I can scrounge up some gold, but that's not a big deal.

For your Immobait, there are a few better options than Ray of Light -- Ball Lightning (does a better end damage burst, and you can also buff it with Chaos Power if you like) and Gnome Gemfinder (gets you extra  quanta so that you can do things like run a  mark and take some unupped Phoenixes instead of Destroyers).

Definitely agree there, but sadly I don't have any better options yet.  The Ball Lightning/Chaos Power thing I saw in one of the tournaments, and I thought it was a pretty cool idea.  I'm torn between Damselfly, Gnome Gemfinder, and Ball Lightning, but ANY of those three is clearly better than Ray of Light in this deck.

You may want to consider changing a Graboid to something else, maybe a 5th Lava Destroyer.  Right now you're using a lot of  which is currently generated only by your mark and whichever Nova/Cremation you happen to draw.  From my experience with these types of decks, even 2 Graboids is pushing it. 

I hadn't thought of that.  It's true that occasionally I get stuck on earth quanta, particularly if I get two destroyers and a graboid.


I'll try swapping one graboid for something, maybe a phoenix, and swap the momentum for Deflagration.

edit: Doing 2x more Deflagration for now instead of graboid/momentum.

[dragonsdemesne]

by dragonsdemesne

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4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 5f6 5og 713 77e 77e 77g 77g 7ae 7dm 7dm 7dp 7dp 7dp 7dp 7dp 7dp 7dq 7dq 7dq 7dq 7jp 7jp 7jp 7jv 7mt 7tb 8pm

This is the current version and it's doing a bit better now.  Upgraded two Gnome Gemfinders and swapped two rays out, and upgraded an explosion with the money I made today.  The extra explosions help keep the shards or shields or weapons away, which means the offense gets through more often.  The gnomes are helping pay for graboids/golems, and with a full set eventually, it should be no problem running a third graboid again if I wanted to.

[TheForbiddenOracle]

by TheForbiddenOracle

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4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 5f6 5og 713 77e 77e 77g 77g 7ae 7dm 7dm 7dp 7dp 7dp 7dp 7dp 7dp 7dq 7dq 7dq 7dq 7jp 7jp 7jp 7jv 7mt 7tb 8pm

This is the current version and it's doing a bit better now.  Upgraded two Gnome Gemfinders and swapped two rays out, and upgraded an explosion with the money I made today.  The extra explosions help keep the shards or shields or weapons away, which means the offense gets through more often.  The gnomes are helping pay for graboids/golems, and with a full set eventually, it should be no problem running a third graboid again if I wanted to.

Hmmm, I don't really see the point of DamselFly, while it is Cremate fodder, it's effect does nothing except bring out Fog Shield in this deck, which can be brung out with Cremate X2, Nova X2, or Nova + Cremate. Also I don't like playing cards in nova/cremate bows that cost 3 or more that your mark or emitting creatures can't make, so I would take out the Flesh Recluse. Overall it looks like a nice deck though

[dragonsdemesne]

Yeah, I was thinking of taking out the spider, as sometimes I get stuck unable to play it.  The damselfly is there simply because it's better than Ray of Light (2/1 vs 1/1) for the cases it doesn't get immediately cremated.  Eventually all the rays will be replaced by either gnomes, damselflies or ball lightnings once I get them.

[dragonsdemesne]

What are people's opinions of using Minor Phoenix in this deck?  I won two of them today, so I don't have to pay to upgrade them

[CPU24/7]

I would go for a grabbix kind of deck.

-3 lava destroyers
+3 phoenix

I think that if you get a first turn lava destroyer which is very possible you might have to wait a while to get graboid out with lava destroyer using earth quanta.