Poison/growing-based Life Deck

[seleneyue]

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4t4 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bu 5c1 5c1 5c1 5c1 5c1 5c2 5c2 5c3 5c6 5c8 5c8 5c8 5c8 5i4 5i4 5i7 5ia 5ia
This is my starting point for a deck for elders, and eventually top 50. As it is, it lacks creature control and permenant control; a fire shield will shut me down for good.
I want to add a few deflagrations and perhaps some creature control (most likely more freezes), and am thinking of getting another carapace shield.  Adding the shield and freezes won't affect the deck too much but I'd need to add quantum/fire pillars to play the deflags, and I'm not sure of how many would do the trick, or if they'll ruin the deck.

Or, should I just change to life/rainbow deck?

[Dm]

You're too worried with putting PC in your deck. The deck is fine as it is, so don't worry 


But to speed things up a bit, I'd change the sword for another water pillar, or if you have it, a jade staff. I'd take out the empathic bond, and the thorn carapace, if stolen, will kill you pretty good. So if you take out both the Empathic Bond and the Thorn Carapace for, say, another frog, you'd have a pretty neat amount of critters to work on. You'd also be able to throw the Frog/Scorpion in first to see if the opponents will Creature Control them or not.

[seleneyue]

I understand taking out the thorn carapace and the sword for more attack power, but I don't have Jade staff, unfortunately. Just wondering, why is empathic bond bad?

[Dm]

You don't have many critters and it may get stolen from you, therefore healing the opponent. It's also a healing spell, which can be easily changed by another attacking critter or adrenaline.

[seleneyue]

I took your advice and removed the three permanents. I added a water pillar (which really helped) and 2 horned frogs.
The deck is as follows

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5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bu 5bu 5bu 5c1 5c1 5c1 5c1 5c1 5c2 5c2 5c8 5c8 5c8 5c8 5i4 5i4 5i4 5i7 5ia 5ia
Out of 20 times against the AI3, I lost 5 times, won 15, and got elemental mastery once. Otyguh tends to kill me, as does any form of creature control combined with Maxwell's demon. Shields really reduce the efficacy of the Forest Scorpions, rendering them almost useless. A Fire Shield placed early on makes it hard to play, but it rarely happens that the AI gets enough quanta for a fire shield before I get a few creatures out. I need to draw at least 2 Emerald Pillars within the first two turns in order to get creatures out in any reasonable length of time.

Is there anything you would recommend tweaking, especially in regards to ratios of pillars? I was thinking of switching almost all the pillars to emerald towers, with a few emerald pillars left, which would make my quanta more stable, but not sure if it's a good idea.

[Dm]

I took your advice and removed the three permanents. I added a water pillar (which really helped) and 2 horned frogs.
The deck is as follows

Code: [Select]

4t4 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bu 5c1 5c1 5c1 5c1 5c1 5c2 5c2 5c3 5c6 5c8 5c8 5c8 5c8 5i4 5i4 5i7 5ia 5ia
Out of 20 times against the AI3, I lost 5 times, won 15, and got elemental mastery once. Otyguh tends to kill me, as does any form of creature control combined with Maxwell's demon. Shields really reduce the efficacy of the Forest Scorpions, rendering them almost useless. A Fire Shield placed early on makes it hard to play, but it rarely happens that the AI gets enough quanta for a fire shield before I get a few creatures out. I need to draw at least 2 Emerald Pillars within the first two turns in order to get creatures out in any reasonable length of time.

Is there anything you would recommend tweaking, especially in regards to ratios of pillars? I was thinking of switching almost all the pillars to emerald towers, with a few emerald pillars left, which would make my quanta more stable, but not sure if it's a good idea.

Deck is the same as first post. I'm glad you got so many wins ETC. Otyugh will kill you one way or another. Fire Shield placed early is bad, but nothin' you can do about it.

To tweak a little more, maybe -1 freeze +1 emerald pillar. +1 emerald pillar would help a whole more lot with it.

[seleneyue]

I fixed the deck image, sorry bout that.

Using your suggestion of ditching freeze for an emerald pillar worked, kinda. It helped with the pillars, but left me in a lurch sometimes when the extra turns could've saved me. I did win a druidic staff, which I put in after ten games. The total of 20 games, 10 with, 10 without the Druidic Staff was 8 losses, 12 wins.

Is this an acceptable ratio? I feel like most of the decks I've seen posted have much better ratios with the AI3s.

[Dm]

You could then add Freeze back and take out...

1 horned frog for 1 heal.

1 Scorp for 1 emerald pillar.

[Ekki]

I've made this deck a couple of months ago:

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5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5c1 5c1 5c1 5c1 5c1 5c1 5c2 5c2 5c3 5c3 5c5 5c7 5c7 5c8 5c8 5de 5de 5de 5de 5ia 5ia 5ia 5ia (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,17946.msg244230#msg244230)
It's a PvP version, so it would need some tweaks to work well in AI3.
I like the idea of switching 2 purifies for 1 congeal, maybe eben switching all the purifies for congeals would be good... As for the water quanta, the pendulums seem to be a good choice, take it into account.
You can always use short sword instead of druidic staff, so don't bother too much about that and the emphatic bonds are pretty useless in a deck without mass or renewable creature creation (as fractal or FFQ)

[Dm]

Problem is your water quanta might run off, you can't feed all the spirits. Changin' all life pillars into life pends and then taking out all water pillars for more freezes (In his post right above yours) would be a touch I didn't think of.

[Ekki]

Problem is your water quanta might run off, you can't feed all the spirits. Changin' all life pillars into life pends and then taking out all water pillars for more freezes (In his post right above yours) would be a touch I didn't think of.

Errrr, don't understand that part
Anyways, what I said is adding pendulums instead of pillars, and changing purifies for congeals...

[Dm]

Yes, but I was saying that in your version, your water quantum might end soon, due to having 5 forest spirits;