Pharaos and scarabs

[Rael]

Hello, I've been using the following deck for some days:

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4ta 4ta 4ti 560 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rj 5rj 5rk 5rk 5rk 5rl 5rl 5ro 5ro 5rq 5rq 5rq 5rq 5rq 5rq 5rs 5rs 5rs 5rs 5t2 5t2 6rq 6s2 8pl

I know it's an old idea: use Pharaohs to produce a huge amount of scarabs and use SoR to pruduce even more. I added SoFocus for a bit of Permanent Control and a Chimera in case of very annoying Dimesional Shields. It works really good in pvp I (even though the shards are not upped there), didn't keep track of the games I played but I would say it has more than 80% win rate. I'm wondering whether to add a Shard of Freedom (I have only one). The deck is a bit prone to quanta denial (e.g. Devourers + Fractal). Any ideas on how to improve it?

[Drake_XIV]

One issue I see is simple.  It's bulky.  I'd take out all the Scarabs since with 4 Pharaohs, you should be able to generate enough Scarabs through that and make the deck easier to go through.  I'd change some more Factories to Pendulums to encourage the use of Devour and SoFo's BH.

[furballdn]

30 cards
Pick either scarabs or pharaohs, not both
get rid of HG, RT, and eternity and maybe even procrastination

[Rael]

One issue I see is simple.  It's bulky.  I'd take out all the Scarabs since with 4 Pharaohs, you should be able to generate enough Scarabs through that and make the deck easier to go through.  I'd change some more Factories to Pendulums to encourage the use of Devour and SoFo's BH.

Alright, thanks for the advice, I'm gonna try what you say

30 cards
Pick either scarabs or pharaohs, not both
get rid of HG, RT, and eternity and maybe even procrastination

Thanks for you suggestion, but if I get rid of all you say I end up with 4 Pharaohs, 5 shards, 1 Chimera and 20 pillars/pendulums. How would that work?

[furballdn]

My advice: don't build a pharaoh oriented deck unless you've got 6 of them. If you like scarabs, you can always try to build a fractal scarab deck.

[Drake_XIV]

Actually, I've found 3~4 Pharaohs to be a decent amount.

[McSod]

Slim it way down, like folks're tellin' ya. An' feel free to use the forums to tweak it an' further customize. For example:
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,39188.0.html

[Rael]

Thanks for all your answers, I changed it like this:

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4ta 4ta 4ti 4tm 560 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rj 5rj 5rk 5rk 5rl 5ro 5ro 5rs 5rs 5rs 5rs 5t2 5t2 5t2 6rq 6s2 8pl

and it works pretty well... any other suggestions about this new deck, guys?

[Cheesy111]

Thanks for all your answers, I changed it like this:

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4ta 4ta 4ti 4tm 560 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rj 5rj 5rk 5rk 5rl 5ro 5ro 5rs 5rs 5rs 5rs 5t2 5t2 5t2 6rq 6s2 8pl

and it works pretty well... any other suggestions about this new deck, guys?

-1 SoFre.  Pharoah decks don't lack lategame damage, which sofre gives.
-2 Time Pendulums.  You really need early Time quanta, but the only reason you'd ever need a lot of gravity is to Chimera through dims, in which case you'll have time to build up gravity (aether creatures are generally invulnerable)
-1 Procrastination.  Procrast is nice, but unupped it's really expensive and in this expensive of a deck you don't want it to clog up your hand.
+4 Time Pillar.  More time quanta means faster pharoahs.

[I8SumOrangesNItWasK]

There's nothing wrong with your deck, but when you can afford to, try a Mummy version. I know that Mummy + Reverse Time means 2 cards instead of 1...but it's 4 quanta instead of 9. A HUGE difference, especially early in the match. With enough SoR's, you really don't need . Here's the deck I use:

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4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 6rq 6rq 6rq 6rq 6rq 710 710 71b 71b 71b 71d 71d 71d 71d 71d 71d 74g 75m 75m 7dm 7gq 7gq 7q4 7q4 7q4 7q4 7q9 7q9 7q9 7t9 8pk

I have about 80% win ratio in PvP2 just as you do. I've had winning streaks of 10-12 games, maybe more. It's really a great deck. The nifty thing about mummies is that they are cheap and easy to send out, so you don't need to fill your deck with towers. In fact, I have only 2 towers and 2 pendulums in the whole deck. I've tried every combination of / towers/pendulums/mark, but I think to have 2 towers, 2 pendulums, and mark is truly best. I've tried with and without Chimera, but with the addition of Psions and that shard that makes immortal creatures deal spell damage....Chimera is necessary. You can't play the stall game, you have to beat them fast. (Explosion and Steal are there too, but can be used for other things as well.) Novas bring to the deck any card you want that uses few quanta, and Explosion, Steal, and Purify have saved me more times than I can count. I've also tried with varying amounts of Sundials, but I believe 3 is a good number. They have numerous uses, and putting one in your deck doesn't really ever hurt.

Bone Walls are amazing! And they have great synergy with Scarabs. They also make Explosion and Steal no more useful than a Spark...hehehe. Every deck needs defenses, and Procrastination just isn't the best.

Now, as far as the number of cards in your deck goes, I think in all honestly that having slightly over 30 (not a bunch; 32-36 is good) is a positive thing, because it means you're more likely to win stall wars against people with 30-card decks. The number of cards in my deck being so high has saved me before. I could do without the Sundials -- they're still up for debate -- but even 33 cards sounds like a good number if I were to get rid of them.

Anyway, you DO have too many cards in your deck. Slim it down some, even if you don't use my idea. (But please do at least consider it...it's quite awesome!)

EDIT: This deck doesn't work nearly as well without upgrading the RT's. If you do ever do this deck, upgrade them first!