Unbroken Patience [Aether][Water] Idea that needs balancing out

[Nox]

All right, so I had a simple deck concept, and this is just a prototype of it (Cards can be subject to change, this was just based off ones I actually had).

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

5j2 5j2 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 61u 61u 622 625 625 626 626 626 626 80i 80i 80i 8pp

The idea is similar to that of a standard aether deck in that it, of course, will carry lobotomizer and phase shields for extreme stalling. However, instead of dragons, we're going to use phase salvagers (and psions, in the event they get a difficult-to-damage setup).

The trick is to avoid (in most situations) playing the salvagers until you have SoP out, that way A: It will help them survive, and B: The salvagers will keep your SoP, shield, and Lobo away from harm. There's also some fractals to boost damage with SoP significantly.

After rather brief testing, I've found that with some luck it can beat bronze, but it is currently terribly imbalanced: 2 SoP isn't enough to reliably get them, and I either always have too much aether or not enough.

Ideas?

[ColorlessGreen]

Looks like fun. My only suggestions right now are to add at least one (ideally two) more SoPs for better draw chance, and just go ahead and skip the psions. The only thing I can think of right now where psion would particularly help you over anything else is a gravity shield. Just about any other shield can be dealt with by just letting your critters grow an extra couple turns or whatever it takes to bypass it. Psions could be replaced by ball lightnings. For that matter, some (though not all) of the salvagers could also be replaced by ball lightnings. It doesn't really help very much to have multiple salvagers around (unless I'm misremembering that only one of them can trigger per permanent per turn), and after you've got that first one or two on the table, you're better off just spamming ball lightnings for 0 quanta cost (which, in addition to being less strained on quanta usage, means you don't lose one to discard every time you fractal).

Hope some of that helps!

[Nox]

Thanks for the quick response

I unfortunately only actually have 2 SoP at the moment, but I'll be sure to do further testing when I get more.

The ball lightnings seem like a fantastic idea, and I have no clue why I didn't think of them.

I kinda like the psions, because as you said, their usage is limited. However, they do have a bit more than you give them credit for (I.E. if I recall, they can avoid permafrosts freeze, don't have to deal with a ton of quanta from entropy shield, blocking from turtle, guarantee vs. dark and air shield, and worst of all, wing chaining since salvager doesn't fly, and this is leaving gravity shield out of the equation...)

Granted, I could be wrong, as I'm unfamiliar with spell damage monster vs. shield functions, (Not to mention a newbie deckbuilder, hah) but those are just other things I have it prepped for.

[ColorlessGreen]

I kinda like the psions, because as you said, their usage is limited. However, they do have a bit more than you give them credit for (I.E. if I recall, they can avoid permafrosts freeze, don't have to deal with a ton of quanta from entropy shield, blocking from turtle, guarantee vs. dark and air shield, and worst of all, wing chaining since salvager doesn't fly, and this is leaving gravity shield out of the equation...)

You're right about psions bypassing all of those things, but if any of those things are a concern, you can just wait an extra turn or two (or however long) before cancelling the SoP and just kill them outright (or provide enough extra damage to guarantee a two-turn kill even if some of the salvagers get frozen, etc etc). It seems to me that the advantage of a quicker kill in those situations would be outweighed by slower kills in all of the other situations when you look at it in aggregate.

That said, if you like the psions, by all means, keep them. Possibly even add some more so you can use them as early-game damage while waiting to get your SoPs. That might make a big difference actually while you're waiting to win some more SoPs, since it's quite hard to absolutely rely on SoP when you only have a pair of them.

[Nox]

Hm...Fair enough, I suppose

Thanks again!

Now I'm kinda curious as to how far this deck could get reliably if it was upped...I don't have nearly the supply of electrum for that at the moment though XD I suppose some time in the future.

[ColorlessGreen]

Now I'm kinda curious as to how far this deck could get reliably if it was upped...I don't have nearly the supply of electrum for that at the moment though XD I suppose some time in the future.

If you haven't seen it before, check out elementsthegame.com/trainer. It allows you to test anything you can come up with (provided you can only test it against non-arena AI) without having to actually shell out the electrum on your real account.

[kaempfer13]

For consistent draws 3 SoPs should be optimal. Replace psions with silences (they will allow you to break shield chains just as well and have additional use in protecting your fractaled salvagers (obviously you play it before fractal)). Adding purifies could be an option as well, else i can see no way of how to improve this deck further.